The Dark God
by Nachoman1
Summary: A guy complains about his headache in a way that can be worded as a wish, and the Almighty grants him his heart's desire.Written as a tribute to the OMG saga by Brett Handy
1. Acknowledgements, Foreword, and Disclaim...

Document type: self-insertion fan fiction

Series: AMG

Disclaimer:

I do not own 'Ah, Megami-Sama' or any of its characters portrayed on either the OVA's, the movies, the manga, or the series 'Mini-Goddess'; they are all property of Kosuke Fujishima. I don't have permission to use it, but I am writing this story for entertainment purposes only, and I don't expect to make any profit whatsoever from this. 

The characters 'Brett, God of Destiny', 'Chia-Yao, God of Truth', the deity of Mystery, the corps of Security Daemons, and moreover all the 'Oh my god' saga, is intellectual property of Brett Handy; the character 'Uruz, Goddess of always' (and other gods portrayed in the fanfiction "Miss Keiichi Returns") is intellectual property of the Goddessfan (aka Ranmafan); and the character 'Terai', and the fanfiction 'Plague of Skulds' is property of Jim Nutley. I was hoping to contact them to get authorisation to use their characters, but their email accounts and/or web sites were all inactive. If you are reading this and know how to contact any of them, please put them in contact with me. I'll be very grateful.

I'm drawing concepts mostly from the original AMG, but readers of the aforementioned fanfics will likely see my basis. Nevertheless, since I'm writing this fanfic as a continuation of Nutley's 'Plague of Skulds', which was intended as a continuation or so of Handy's 'Oh my God' saga.

This fanfic is supposed to begin about six months after 'Plague of Skulds' ended, but doesn't respect the fact that Nutley's fanfic is supposed to have ended in June 1996; it assumes it either happened around June 2002 or doesn't care about the year.

  
  


Any new characters are mine, and I'll be glad to authorize their use (please just try to contact me beforehand); however, I don't want to authorise the use of the main character (myself), unless it is for no more than cameos. I mean, one thing is to use fictitious characters freely, but I wouldn't want my own image to be out of my control. That's why I will not use the character of "Brett" until I get permission, and even if so, I don't want to write by myself anything but a cameo of him.

  
  


If I use archaisms, start using repetitive words (or formulae), shift between metric and imperial measuring, or just start going a bit too awkward, please don't cook me in flames. My English grammar teacher always told me that writing is what I have to do to improve my grammar, so I try to not anglicise Spanish terms or figures, not always with success . . . 

  
  


I'll receive comments, criticism, and tips about how to contact the abovementioned authors. Just remember that flames are ignored and disposed of.

(End of disclaimer)


	2. Ch1, Scene 1

This is NOT the first chapter, but only the first scene of the first chapter. I hope to upload new scenes until I finish a chapter, and I hope to do so on a regular basis. I at least hope to upload the first five or ten sequences right away, and then put up some more.

* * *

The Dark God

So here I was, cleaning my hard drive, when it happened. When it all started, it was about 5:30AM, a good two hours before dawn time, and about that time of the day I am never very bright, no matter if I had pulled an all-nite fanfiction reading session, had studied all-nite, or just being wakened up by my two alarm clocks. In this particular morning it was a fourth reason: my two alarm clocks had just reawakened me after I had spent the night in front of my computer, with a piece of my mind processing homework and science-fiction, and another piece cursing my intolerance to vinegar, which incidentally was the reason why I hadn't been able to go to bed. Well, after I shat up the alarms and tasted the weather (by mindlessly opening my room's window, and shiftily closing it back after receiving the full force of the snowstorm in my bare chest), I started to enumerate my current aches: apparently my entire digestive track was on a strike ( I managed to get indigestion AND diarrhea at the same time ), I was groggy, disoriented and slightly hung-over, and had a very pained right thigh, thanks to a table and one of my trips to the bathroom. To top the cake, now was starting to sneeze from that close call with the window. A comforting thought filled my mind, saying something in the line of 'with so much snow there is no way for school to open today', until the mental smile was shattered by the unmistakable rumble of our local snowplow. I got a quick glance at my clocks, and saw that it was running on schedule, which meant the snow was not so deep after all, and school was most likely to open today.

It was the last straw for me. As calmly as I could, I went to the bathroom, filled the sink with lukewarm water, dunk my face into the water, and screamed with all my might and soul, and once my lungs were empty, I stood there until the need to breathe brought my face back to the surface. I just stood there breathing hard for what felt like five minutes, until a 'clap' noise coming from the main door, which I recognized as the newspaper, brought me back to reality. I slowly made my way to the main door thinking something good about the commitment of the paperboy, when I saw that indeed there was no paper, and instead of it there was a white envelope. 'Too early to be the mail' I thought with a bit of suspicion, which was reinforced when I looked by a nearby window, as I saw no steps in the fresh snow. I picked up the envelope and read the destination . . . 

"Mr. Ignacio Alejandro Ramirez Martin del Campo (aka Necromancer)

The Second bedroom to the left

(blah, blah, blah)

South Eastern Canada

North American Landmass

Terra

Sol system

Milky Way

Galactic Group 4926-3072

Mortal Realm"

I felt a bit of relief imagining that it must be from one of the weirdos I call friends, who might have wanted to check on my paranoia levels. I decided to amuse the sender, and after checking for a nonexistent return address, I opened the envelope. It contained a single sheet of paper, which I promptly read.

Mr Ramirez:

Your request for help has been approved. A representative will be sent to you at your soonest convenience. 

Attn

Goddess Relief Office

I started to ponder about the possible meaning(s) of the message, while I made my way back to "Second bedroom." I decided it would have come from some of the "Harry Potter" freaks, and . . . decided my head was way too pained to begin inquiring at the moment. I would just turn off the computer, and set the alarms to go off in another half an hour. I sat down, woke up the computer, keyed the screen saver password, and opened my sleepy eyes in disbelief. A whirl had begun in the centre of my desktop screen and quickly expanded to consume the entire screen, and from its centre a very human looking hand extended through the glass of the screen, and in a second a very female body had been launched onto me, making my chair topple.

I must mention that I am proud of my self control, because what happened next stretched it to the limit: I was still in my chair in a sitting position, with the chair flat on the ground, while a very shapely female body was resting on top of me, with her chest plastered against my face, and her face plastered against the rug. The first thing I though was to hold my ground (and my breath) until she made a move, but when I heard her muttering something about plasma screens always sending her like a cannonball, I noticed she still hadn't noticed me. Since I was going to need to breathe pretty soon, I made the only intelligent thing I could think about: I tapped her shoulder. She rose to a sitting position on my abdomen, but at least I had the relief to have her remove her chest from my face, so I inhaled, ratter deeply. The sound of it was enough to bring her to her feet, with a fist raised and crackling with electricity, and her eyes saying, 'Give me a reason to spare your life!'. I obliged: I pushed the awkwardness, grogginess and pain out of my face, pushed forward a straight face, and made my best imitation of Mr. Spock, while saying "Live long and prosper." That pushed her off balance long enough for me to notice my abdomen had indeed resented the pressure, so I scrambled to the bathroom. 

Once I stopped felling my stomach contracting, I looked up and saw the lady holding a box of tissues, with a concerned face. I thanked her with a weak smile. Five minutes and a mouth wash later, she helped me back to my room, where I sat on the bed while she sat on the chair. After I recounted again my aches (grogginess, an insurgency in my digestive track, a sore right thigh, the beginnings of a runny nose, and a bulging headache that always comes after I vomit, but now intensified by having bumped my head in the fall), I blurted the thing that had been running around my mind since I stepped out of the bathroom: "Would you happen to be a Video-Girl?"

You'll see, I wasn't too deep into the anime at the time, but my mind had registered a few facts: (A) She appeared out of a monitor, (B) She had shown me she was capable of conjuring energy around her fist. (C) She had more or less soothed me for the last five minutes. (D) She was fierily beautiful. All those facts pointed 'Video-Girl', so I had to ask.

She looked at me blankly. 

'What is a Video-Girl?', She asked, in a surprised voice.

"Never mind that," --I said -- "If you don't know, you wouldn't be."

Then I looked at my watch, which reed 6:10 A.M.. I almost whispered her 'Please not so loud: If my landlord wakes up and finds me with a girl, I'll find myself homeless in a Canadian January'. She nodded understandingly and closed my door. On the mean time I had reached for my room's box of tissues and used the first one on my nose, which I noticed with a growl that had didn't had only snot, but also blood. She noticed the garbage can near her and put it in the ground between us.

"Thanks for helping me, but who or what are you?"

"I am Urd," she said. "A goddess."

I had already mentioned that on that morning I wasn't feeling very intelligent, so the next line should not surprise you. I wasn't amazed, or even registering disbelief; besides, so far she hadn't told me why she was here. So, I said "Good. Do you know something? If I could wish anything in this whole damn world right now, I would wish to have the digestive track of a deity, so I wouldn't have . . . "

A strange tingling feeling in the air told me to look at Urd, who had slapped her forehead hard and was mumbling something about deja vu, until she started to rise on the air. She started to emanate light and crackle with electricity, until her forehead rose upwards, and from a strange triangular marking I had just noticed on her forehead, a beam of red light emanated skywards. The light show had been enough to wake me up, and I was ready to panic when the red beam of light died, she came back to the ground, and thru me an annoyed look.

"Your wish has been approved." -- she said, and the next thing I knew is that I was starting to accumulate distance from the ground, the entire room illumination seemed to die down, and my forehead was jerked upwards so I could receive a similar red beam of light. My entire body felt like it had been set on fire, but without the pain, and although it was pleasant, it was certainly a terrifying experience. I was hovering a good metre over my bed, and when the light left me, I fell on my bed pretty hard. The first thought I had right then was 'Great, now I'll add a sore back to the list', but was amazed to not fell anything bad about my back. In fact, when I opened my eyes I was even more surprised to find that in fact I had no aches at all: my tummy was happy, my limbs were feeling fine, my headache was gone, and even my grogginess was gone! I scrambled to my feet and checked myself, finding that under my charred pyjama pants were two perfectly sculpted (and perfectly tan) legs, and that my flat abdomen had gained some weight in pure muscle. I could not resist the idea and jumped in front of my full body mirror, where I saw that although my upper body hadn't gained mass, it had indeed a great muscle tone and . . . To make the long story short, I had just gone from a 'recreational marathon runner,' to an 'IronMan Triathlon Champion'. However, right then I saw THEM. One was a black rectangle, standing in my forehead, while two black crescents, one on each of my cheeks, were opening toward my nose much like they wanted to lock on the lobes like earrings. I shook my head, and it was then when I noticed her again, who was apparently happy about my reaction. Forgetting about anything, I prostrated myself in front of her and, with my face still on the floor, spoke up.

"Oh Goddess Urd, I do not know from you and your achievements, but I promise, upon the gift you have given me, that I will learn everything that is to be learned about you!"

I felt something click inside my head and felt the air starting to whirl around me, but Urd's voice, with a hint of panic, cut thru the noise.

"Yggdrasil: I do NOT accept the promise I have just received from the god Ignacio! Please abort!"

Something clicked again inside my skull, but I was a bit too confused to care: the words 'god Ignacio' had drilled a hole in my cosmic vision, and . . . I heard the voice of my landlord say something along the lines 'What the Hell is all that noise!', and looked panicky at Urd, who apparently was already at work. She was gesturing with her hands while mumbling something under her breath, which she finished aloud with ' . . . And have a forgetful sleep!'. The last thing I remember, a sphere of energy appeared in her hand, and exploded in light . . . 

* * *

So that was the first part. I personally don't call it a chapter, as I normally write 50-pages long first chapters. Anyway, I wish you liked this scene, but don't forget that it connects right away with the next. 


	3. Ch1, Scenes 2 and 3

On this one I actually included two different sequences, as neither of them were particularly long. Please remember that they don't have a continuity on their own, but as part of the bigger thing.

* * *

I woke up again . . . somewhere. 

Yes, I'm perfectly conscious how stupid that sounds, but now my head was throbbing again, so I didn't care. There were few things I could tell for certain without moving my head:

A. My internal clock reed 'around ten in the morning', but the sunlight reeds either 'dusk' or 'dawn'.

B. I was very comfortable while my back was very strait, so I was either on a very good sleeping bag, or on a Japanese futon.

C. My stomach was all right, and so much that it was growling.

D. My migraine wasn't coming from me, but from a shooting match somewhere nearby.

E. From that same point came a feeling of like a build-up of energy that was promising to rise my headache to unusual proportions. 

I brought my hands to my head and pressed on it, and using an impressive mental voice I didn't know I had, I mentally shouted 'Silence!'. Not very comfortably, I noticed that the conversation had stopped dead, and indeed I could hear or feel nothing. Even the air felt cooler. Before I started to get frightened, I heard some calm steps in my direction, and it was THEN when some of my memories returned. I hardly remembered anything but 'A Goddess came to you and reconstructed your body, and you promised her something'. The continuing footsteps kept getting closer and had been joined by some quicker ones, so I rocketed out of the futon and tried to find where they were going to emerge from, and finding that a certain part of the Japanese-looking wall just seemed odd, I quickly went to prostrate myself in front of the would-be doorway, and just as I saw a shadow thru the paper panels of the door, I kneeled, put my forehead in the ground, and extended my arms forward with my open palms facing the floor. I heard the door slid open, and from my position I started to mutter.

"Oh divine Entity, please accept me as your humble slave, that I promise upon the gift . . . "

A soft and embarrassed voice spoke up.

"Oh please, stop it!"

I didn't listen to the instruction, but to the word 'Please'.

"You don't need to say 'please' and 'thank you' to me because . . . "

The next voice was equally embarrassed, but wasn't soft.

"STOP that, Idiot!"

I shut up and waited for some instructions, until I noticed that I had actually been addressed as 'Ignatius', which is the Latin form of my first name, which also happens to literally mean 'idiot'. I was startled that my mind had picked the meaning so quickly, but I was even more startled when I felt a pair of soft hands picking up my hands from the ground and pull me up. When I opened my eyes, I saw a very beautiful honey-blond lady, looking hardly older than myself, and looking awfully embarrassed. She spoke again with her very soft voice.

"Please, don't humble yourself before us."

"Do you have any idea how humiliating that is, specially coming from another god?"

THAT got all the way up to my brain. I looked in disbelief at the source of the comment, who happened to be a cute, black-haired preteen girl, from whom I could have seen, in normal circumstances, that was used to channel embarrassment as anger. At the moment I just managed to look back between the older (who was looking expectant) and the younger (who was starting to look plainly annoyed), and tried to speak.

"G. . . G. . . Go . . . "

" Gee-O-Dee: god!"

That was shouted at ten centimetres from my right ear by a very annoyed voice, which I recognised as the voice which I thought had labelled me 'idiot', and then recognised the owner as the very s . . . s . . . well-developed goddess who had worked my miracle. I tried to say something intelligent, but my mind was on the verge on a self-annihilation.

"So now I am a god." --I spoke rhetorically. I received an energetic nod from her, and blacked out.

* * *

I woke up again after feeling a light hand resting on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to the gentle face of a lady just about my age, but with an . . . I didn't know what, but a 

feeling of tranquillity which permeated air itself. I felt comfortable and unshaken even as my memories returned, and felt a little embarrassed at the way I had reacted the last time. From her sitting position besides my futon, she spoke up; even before I had time to ponder any further.

"Rest, Mr. Ramirez."

Wow! Finally I had met somebody who can address me by my father's surname without making me shudder. Anyway, I could not be so rude to let the lady just hanging without an answer; besides, I had a little matter nagging me. I gave her a shy smile, slowly sat up in the futon, and spoke.

"Sorry if my actions offended you, Ma'am."

"Don't worry, Ramirez-san." -- There was the name again. -- "We understand you had a religious education, and that was an ingrained response."

When 'she' said "we," I contemplated whether I was speaking with more than a single goddess, but the meaning of her words wasn't lost. I blushed, and she carried on.

"And by the way, please call me just Belldandy."

The name didn't bring on any lights, but the word 'me' was a reassurance by itself. At that moment, I decided to put the cards on the table. I sighed, and spoke. 

"So now I am a god, Miss Belldandy." -- I know I could have been less blunt, but to that moment I still didn't feel like a conversationalist.

"Yes you are, and very soon we'll need to go. You have an appointment."

I muttered an "OK, Miss Belldandy," imitated her as she stood up, and looked down. I was looking down to ponder on where was I going and whom I was going to meet, but I also took notice that I was still wearing nothing but my pajamas' pants, which had been reduced to nothing but charred rags clinging to my waist. I quickly pulled the sheet from inside the futon and covered my waist with it.

"Eh sorry, Belldandy-san . . . " -- I started, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh sorry, Ramirez-san. I had forgotten." -- She interrupted, with an apologetic smile. She then started to chant, and with her hands started to make strange gestures toward me. I didn't know what to think of it, so I just watched without moving a muscle. About the end of her chanting I thanked not having moved, since I started feeling an energy buildup around me, and by the time she was done, the sheet I was wearing and, in fact, the entire futon started to revolve around me. It suddenly clung to my skin and started shining, and by the time I could look again at it, it had become a luxurious and extensive roman looking toga, one of those you expect to see in depictions and paintings of the roman senate, while around me laid the futon's stuffing. 

I had already promised myself to not be awed in the Goddesses presence, but to be able to take such an act with a strait face would have been a severe overstatement of my self control. Anyway, I had enough left for me to see that my hostess had paled and was wavering on her feet. I closed the gap in a second, position myself on her side, and easily kept her from falling by passing my hands below her armpits and keeping her raised (after all, my grandmother gave me lots of practice). I could have carried her on a more 'manly' way, but I decided that for self preservation's sake, I should carry her just like this. After all, who else than a god might be the boyfriend, or husband, of such a lovely goddess?

Answers came soon enough. I was turning towards the nearest door when it burst open, and saw enter thru it the two other Goddesses and a. . . kid not older than 15, judging by his appearance. It was the boy who rushed the most when he saw me almost carrying a hardly conscious Belldandy, and it was him the one who took her on his arms, muttered something along 'not again', directed a silent 'thank you' toward me, and with great exertion carried her out, sound asleep. I watched them disappear in the hall, and mentally asked an important question: 'Does this happen very often?'

"More than you would im. . ." -- The two other Goddesses started, but didn't finish. First they eyed each other, and then starting staring at me. The older one spoke. 

"How did you used telepathy?"

Did I use telepathy? I was a bit confused.

"Yes, you did." -- The small one answered. Then added "Yes, you are!"

I opted for utter confusion at that moment. It helped, since neither of them seemed to react to the flood of disarrayed flash thoughts that were shuffling in my mind like an industrial washing machine.

'Thank God they aren't making me responsible.'

'Thank what God?'

'Will this telepathy be useful in my quizzes and test?'

'My mother will be thrilled.'

'Is this lady Belldandy alright?'

'Is she available, or does she have a boyfriend?'

'I'm running low on spices. I'll need to run to Chinatown.'

'Who was that guy? Her little brother?'

'I think I'm also low on vegetables. I'll buy carrots and eggplant.' 

'Where am I going with them?'

'Is white the natural hair colour of this Urd lady?'

'She's most definitely heavenly!'

'Am I still wearing anything below this. . . toga?'

'Who am I going to meet?'

'What are those markings on all their faces? Do I have. . .? Oh, yes I do!'

'Am I really a god? Do I have powers or something like it?'

'Who am I going to meet?'

'What time is it? Could be noon or midnight for all I know.'

'Who am I going to meet?'

'Who am I going. . .'

My little brainstorm ended abruptly when I heard a distant female voice, apparently from another pre- puber girl. And by looking around me, I saw that I was not the only one that had gone offline: the two of them were looking like just awoken.

"Urd! Skuld! Belldandy says you can leave without her! I'll stay here with her and Keiichi."

"Ok. . . Thanks, Terai!" -- The small one, who by elimination must have been Skuld, answered after a second. Then she and Urd took me by my arms and started pulling me, even as I was giving no opposition whatsoever. I decided that I could process belief later, and at least for a while I should work in blind trust. . . which wasn't exactly a deterrent from keeping up the questions. 

"Err. . . sorry, where are we going?"

"To Heaven, where the Almighty wants to talk to you." Skuld, the little one, said. Then she gave me a warm and reassuring smile, which made me feel confident and pushed me to smile back. But the confidence quickly gave way to a feeling of dread, which I could feel coming from my opposite side. I turned toward Urd, who had a look that could poach an egg.

"But just don't even think on prostrating yourself in front of Him!"

I could feel I was blushing furiously, as I hadn't blushed in perhaps a few years. In fact I could feel my blush going down my arms; and then I felt Skuld letting go of my right arm. I looked at her and saw that she too had gone as red as the crimson jewels at back of her gloves, which were covering the cheeks of a terribly embarrassed face. And then I felt Urd letting go of my left arm, and as I turned around I could see that she too had blushed, and her now red cheeks were framing a very self-conscious demeanor. She spoke up, hardly looking at me.

"Er. . . well, here we are." -- There we were, indeed. I had hardly noticed, but from the hallway we had entered a kitchen, we had crossed it, and now we were standing in front of an exterior door. -- "The portal will open out there."

Urd pushed the door open and stepped out, followed by Skuld and me. As I stepped out of the lights, I instantly became aware of the night. Not aware in the sense of noticing night itself, but in the sense of noticing everything under it: I could sense the roof of clouds being moved by the wind, and a few cars moving thru distant avenues, and a few stray cats fighting over a few craps of food over a mile away, and even that above us it was starting to snow, we wouldn't receive any of it for at least another hour. I was tugged out of my newfound awareness by a hand on my forearm, and Skuld's voice saying 'Come on! We don't have all night.' I followed her to the point were Urd was standing. In front of her, golden letters were imbedded to the frozen ground, and that the letters seemed to be glowing, even though they looked like cool metal.

'To the Norns:

Bring the new risen mortal to my presence, as soon as he regains consciousness.

Right in this place I will open a portal leading directly to the antechamber to my office.

I"

And just as I reed the 'I', the golden letters banished, and a point of light appeared like a metre over where they had been resting. This point of light quickly expanded, and in fact opened a bit like an iris, until it was a two metre wide circular white wall, hovering an inch from the ground. Once it stopped opening, Skuld spoke up.

"Come on, Ramirez-san, we can't keep Kami-Sama waiting."

Then she hoped in, and I could not see her anymore. Anyway, I could hardly see a thing because the light was just too bright to stand. I think Urd thought that I was frightened, because she took a firm grip on one of my forearms, and spoke reassuringly.

"Don't worry. Nothing bad is going to happen to you."

At the next moment she was stepping thru, and pulling me in.

* * *


	4. Ch1, Scenes 4 and 5

This are scenes 4 and 5 of the first chapter...

* * *

Oh boy! Do you know was is to have an over-illuminated room? Try a shinny white room, remove its roof at noon, and add enough illumination to lit a mayor leagues' baseball stadium. That's how my eyes felt as soon as we went across the portal. Even my skin was feeling the blast! 

Apparently I was the only one feeling bad, because Urd and Skuld were hurrying me towards someone. That someone sounded like a veteran female secretary, one of those you would expect a big party to happen the day after they retire. 

"So, this is the new god? Good; now go in: the Father doesn't have Eternity just to wait for you!"

A big double door opened and we were kicked inside the next room.

"Greetings, Urd, Goddess of the Past; Skuld, Goddess of the Future; and Ignacio Ramirez, Neo-circa God of Darkness."

I could feel the Goddesses jumping from my side and staring at me, but I didn't have eyes to look at them. Matter of fact, I was almost blind: I was trying to show my respect by standing with my face uncovered and my eyes open, looking towards the direction I could make up the voice had came from; however, I wasn't exactly enjoying 'the light of His face.' He apparently noticed, as a pair of sunglasses had appeared in one of my hands. . .

"Put them on, Nacho."

I obeyed . . . I mean, I complied instantly. And it was a relief, as I could finally see something. First I saw that the floor was wooden, then I saw Urd sizing me from four metres away, and then I tried to look back at the other end of the room, with no success. At least there was a great improvement, as now I could stand looking strait at the light. I kneeled, but was careful to keep in mind to not prostrate myself.

"Thank you for your concern, Lord."

"You don't need to call me Lord, young god. Call me as you feel comfortable with, and stand up."

Yet I felt like I would really need to gain familiarity with a God's life before showing familiarity with the Boss of Bosses. At any rate, I was not going to call Him 'Lord' after he has told me not to. I thought for a moment, and after having stood up, I answered Him with the best I could think of.

"Of course, Sir."

If He was displeased, He didn't make me know.

"And keep them. I hardly use them anyway."

"Thanks again, Sir."

As you can clearly see, I was in 'servant mode.' If was not spoken to, I would not speak. 

"Urd, Skuld: please leave us alone for a moment." -- He instructed. They complied quickly, and soon I was alone with the Almighty. He sighed, and started speaking.

"I will need to apologise to you, young god."

"Why would you, Sir? You have given me a great gift, and. . ."

"No Nacho, is not so much of a gift. You have a kind of Godhood which has a very poor reputation..."

What followed was a brief explanation of the history of Dark Gods. The main characteristic of . . . us, is that we can't process the Holy System Energy the rest of the Gods depend on, and instead we greatly depend on environmental energy. Now the problem is that Dark Deities are born like regular Deities of Light, but as they enter puberty, they become progressively intolerant to Light, and to System Energy. The only option is for the deity to leave Heaven, which joined with their disconnection from the system, tended to drive them mad. In the end, they ended either crazy, let themselves die, or as in most cases, ended joining the Enemy, these last ones normally ending like something called 'Evils'. Only few exceptions remained in the good side, mostly because they had accepted their charge voluntarily (like Hades), or had attributes more related to something that happens at night than to the dark itself (like Selene, Diana, and other deities related to the Moon). I fact, He even told me that a few highly diversified Light Gods whose attributes included Darkness, tended to be depressed whenever they had to go into it. 

I was starting to see why would He want to apologize to me. As I saw things, my Ascension was becoming very little of a gift, and a lot of a curse. Apparently the Almighty was reading my mind at the moment, since He stopped speaking, and I felt -- but could never see -- a comforting hand resting on my shoulder. Now He spoke in a reassuring voice.

"Don't be afraid, son. I did select you for this because I know you'll be able to pull it thru. Besides, you have two great advantages over any other god. First, you have never been plugged into System Energy, so not being connected will not drive you over the edge by itself. . ." -- I could certainly see the logic on that -- ". . .and second, and you know this one, your heart's wish would have been to be able to spend the rest of your life creating art in the mountains, instead of working an eight-to-six for some heartless company. In fact I interpreted your heart's wish and tried to fulfill it to its fullest potential. Besides, I would rather think you will rather enjoy moving to Japan to be trained."

"I. . . would think so, Sir."

I could feel like He was winking at me, even through I wasn't technically seeing His face. Nevertheless, my self-confidence and happiness had just rose a few notches, and I would be happy for a while to come. By the time I noticed, I was an 'Ignacio' grinning like an 'Ignatius' in front of the Almighty, thinking on trivialities like anime, manga and a few video games. He took me back to reality, with a mildly amused tone.

"Well son, you better go, and on your way out call for Urd and Skuld. I want you to think on your condition, since it won't really sink in for a while. Just remember to ask for help when you need it."

"Thanks, Sir. Thanks for everything."

I walked to the gigantic double door, pulled it slightly open, and walked a step before noticing the waiting room. I hadn't noticed anything other than the light level first time I passed thru, but now with the glasses I noticed that it was as big as a hangar, made with roman architecture, and with many small square skylights popping here and there. I also noticed the near side was cramped with people, that many of those people were carrying weapons of some sort (from obsidian knifes to shotguns, and everything in between), and that the room had gone quiet as soon as I stepped out. Yet, the Almighty Himself had asked me to send Urd and Skuld to his presence, and I would be damned if I was to let Him down in my very first assignment. I spotted Urd not to far away, and walked in her direction, even as I was starting to blush at having so many stares on me. I tried to break the silence by talking up.

"Hey Urd, the Boss. . ."

I stopped speaking after saying 'Boss' because the moment I said it, there were from gasps to shrieks, and now I was in the middle of a mob of frightened Gods, and four out of each five were now caressing their weapons. I was frightened myself, but I had a mission.

"Well Urd, He wants to talk to you and Skuld."

"Ok, I'm going." -- She answered shiftily. Then she backed down a few steps and yelled back. -- "Skuld, the Almighty wants us in." -- Then walked backwards, out of sight.

Note to self: Never EVER refer to the Almighty as 'Boss'. Too bad I already had, and right then I was surrounded, severely outnumbered, and almost pissing my pants. But right then something happened. From the back of the crowd I heard a female voice, who apparently was trying to pass thru. In fact, the 'sorry's and 'excuse me's were getting nearer, and soon I saw a short young woman, whose appearance would have spelled 'pharmacist' if had been paying attention to it ( white lab robe, well cared shoulder length hair in a ponytail, light make up, old design lenses, and you name the rest ). She extended a hand and took me by a wrist.

"Come here kid, that you and me have an immediate appointment."

She started to pull me, but as I started following the crowd opened for us. Once we were out she threw her glasses ahead of us, and as she stepped on them, she fell thru them, pulling me with her.

* * *

I would have kissed the floor when we arrived into an empty room. In fact I was so relieved at just being away, that I had fallen on my knees and was breathing hard on the floor. An amazed voice spoke to me. 

"What did you do to upset them so much, kid? When I arrived they were so terrified that if you had sniffed, I would be scraping you with a spatula right now!"

"Well, I called Him as 'the Boss'!"

"What?!" -- Her voice was one of disbelief, but not at what I was thinking. -- "That's quite heretic, but nowhere enough for them to want your head!"

"I think it also was that Urd and Skuld had told them that I'm the new God of the Dark!"

"How's that?" -- one more time a tone of disbelief. -- "Oh, yes; Urd and Skuld, two of the three time Goddesses of the Norse pantheon."

Apparently she already was fully briefed, or she was impossible to startle. Either way her answers brought my face up, to met her quite amused gaze. -- "Well, lets get down to business. You won't have more than an hour here, and then you have another appointment." -- She then walked to a nearby desk and waved me to sit by. I was promptly there, and she already had opened a file, which contained nothing but a blank sheet of paper. She appeared a fountain pen out of thin air, and started.

"Ok, so you are the Modern God of the Dark, right?"

"Well, I think the Lord actually addressed me as 'Neo-Circa', whatever that means."

"It just means 'New Age', and it means that you are a brand-new god, which brand new powers, for a new reality which is unfilled by existing deities." -- She paused for a second. -- ". . . Although it seems quite natural being you a Dark God."

The Big Boy had already told me that my position was as unenviable as it gets for a god, so it just made sense that no-one was on duty. I was about to ask her something else, but she saved me.

"Sorry, can I check the glasses you are wearing?"

"Sure, but can you dim the lights before? Without the glasses I'll be blind."

"Well, sure." -- She stood up and went to the far side of the room, so I started looking around me. We were in what appeared to be a top notch optician's lab, except for a big vertical white cylinder by the all-crystal far wall, which after a second I recognised as a high-temperature oven. She passed by said oven, and gave four taps to the crystal wall, which instantly went black. She turned back to me.

"Ok, now may I?" -- She said after sitting in front of me, pointing to my glasses.

"Of course." -- I removed the glasses myself, but the moment they left my face, my world went white again, and I had to shut my eyes.

"Is it still too bright for you?" -- Now her voice seemed startled. I scratched my previous theory of "impossible to startle", and tried to answer with a comic and slightly pained groan, after which I raised my face and faced where her voice had come from, smiled, and said "Although I can live with it". I heard her chuckle (from the right direction), and say "Don't worry. It will only take a minute." 

I shut up. I am the kind of guy who prefers to not pursue a conversation with somebody who is conducting an analysis of me, mainly because experience taught me, by the bloody hand of a barber. * I waited around twenty seconds, and heard a pained groan, followed by an equally pained voice.

[ * Author note: I will not elaborate, but it was quite morbid.] 

"I guess you got this lenses from the Almighty, didn't you?"

"Yup."

"Shut. Then analysing the crystal will be useless. This are the ultra-adaptative lenses I made for him about a hundred Earth years ago, and the only thing I can think about is directly examining you." -- She paused just for a second. -- "Look, even now they are adapting to me!"

Of course I could not look: matter of fact, so much light was passing thru my eyelids that now I even had covered my eyes with my hands. She must have seen it, because I heard her rummaging on the drawer after muttering a 'sorry', and after a bit she muttered a curse and stood up. I heard some pacing, and after a short break I heard her voice, a bit distant.

"Try opening your eyes now. I just dimmed the lights."

"Thanks." -- After removing my hands from my face I slowly opened my eyes. I was shocked at just how good my vision was: lets just say that I was now seeing the lab again, but now with a richness of detail and colour that I had just not seen a few minutes ago. But then I saw that my benefactor was having trouble finding the dark green chair she had been sitting on.

"Straight back, Miss!"

I jumped from my sit and pushed the chair for her before she had sat on its edge. She was surprised to find me there, and I was surprised that she was only looking on the general direction of my head when she spoke.

"Oh, thank you."

"No problem; however, isn't it just to dark for you now?"

"I guess it is." -- Pause. -- "But, what about you?"

"Well, I see perfectly, and that's much better than I could see with the lenses." -- . . . -- "By the way, wasn't your chair black?"

"Sure it is. How do you see it?"

"Dark green."

"Mm . . . fascinating."

"Mm?" -- I was wondering what could be so 'fascinating' about differing perception. If I was perceiving it differently, my eyes might be making up colours.

"Not necessarily. It might just be that your eyes are now so sensitive that you can perceive the real hue."

Wait a second! Was she reading my mind?

"No. Goddesses Aren't allowed to read minds but under very special circumstances, and . . ."

Oh, crap.

'I don't know what the word crap means, but if I gather its meaning correctly, I could say the same here', I heard her voice say, from inside my head. I then started to babble mentally, while I slapped my forehead quite hard.

"Ouch! Hey, that hurt!"

"Sorry..."

I started to rub my own forehead, and heard a 'thanks' inside' my head.

After we worked out that this aggressive telepathy must be one of my Dark powers, and after noticing that it would be active even for a while after I had been moved into the light, we decided that it would be useful for the length of the interview. From then on, the interview went incredibly efficient. I always knew what she was going to do or wanted me to do, and she always knew my exact answers, not to say that we could discuss any idea on how to diagnose me or so.

The final test results could be gathered like this:

A) My retinas had lost any trace of rod (night vision) cells, but now had three times as many cone (colour sensitive) cells, which were now four times as sensitive to light as normal. Total so far is twelve.

B) Under my retinas, instead of the regular light absorbing coat a normal human eye has, now I had a reflective coat you can normally find in the eyes of felines, doubling my light sensitivity. Total so far is twenty-four.

C) Normal irises' range of dilation and contraction is 85 to 10%, but mines' ratio was ninety to zero. That shouldn't be a problem, but then it comes that my irises become twenty percent semitransparent when I'm on the light, making my eyes still be five times as sensitive even with my irises completely shut. On the up side, now my irises had a reaction time half the ordinary for any god or human, but it still didn't compensate.

D) My eyes were now supplied blood at four or five times the regular rate, which didn't only compensate for its improvements, but also made me almost immune to visual fatigue.

E) Had I mentioned that my higher density of cone cells had also increased my vision resolution by three?

  
  


Yet, it wasn't all work and no play. We got to know each other, and as she gathered the story of my life, I got a few facts from her:

A) Although her physiological age was twenty-five, she had been created around the Renaissance.

B) There were three categories of Gods by origin: Original, as in born or created in Heaven, then the mortals who were deified after death (like plenty of Wisemans, Saints and Buddas), and then the few mortals who were deified by an oddly worded wish. I was part of the last group, and I was the second in two years, after a period of more than three millennia without a single occurrence. Most of the Gods created during the last thousand years were Ascended Wisemans, but she was actually an Original.

C) She loved her job, although it became boring to be an optician in a town were everyone had a perfect vision. Besides, her main job outside Heaven was to act a muse for optical-centred researchers, but it wasn't as if everyday somebody created a better microscope or telescope.

D) Almost no Modern Original god had an actual name, but they usually took a nickname until they were named by mortals (which was now extremely rare to happen). By her part, she answered to either Crystal or Opal.

E) She had an impressive linguistic ability, which she showed me by perfectly pronouncing my full name after having heard it just once.

F) It wasn't hard to make her blush.

I would continue, but I don't recall everything right now. In any case, there was some material which I prefer to keep only in my head. At any rate, we hardly made conversation during the tests, but we made a lot once we were done with analysis, and ready to make me some glasses. She insisted that she would be very displeased unless I ordered her at least a dozen, and so I did, but then she almost scared me: she had already planned to make me a bucketful of eighty-percent shade contact lenses, so she made by duplicate the dozen glasses I asked, either to use alone or with the contacts, not to say a diving mask and some working goggles, and three different types of sportive lenses, and a rock crystal brandy bottle, and some exchangeable lenses for certain glasses . . .

By the time our appointment was up, I was wearing some ultra-comfortable contacts, and a pair of glasses with a cool conservative design that could have been worn by Sean Connery on a James Bond movie, and I was literally carrying the rest on a bucket. We wouldn't have noticed it, but a knock came from a distant door, and we instantly knew who it was. We both went to open, although I wouldn't really know who of us actually opened. We found Urd and Skuld, who now were on an apologetic mood.

"Hi there", said Opal.

"Hi Crystal, and we owe you an apology, Ramirez-san", answered both Skuld and Urd. Then them bowed a bit in front of me, and I heard Opal's mind voice chuckling and saying 'The Almighty must have really gotten on them, for this two ones to be anywhere apologetic!'

Apparently my telepathy was really out of control, because 'this two ones' reacted as they had been smirked at. 

"You shut up, quartz girl!" -- Said Urd.

"It was really brilliant when not even you noticed the fault in Hubble's mirror!" -- Continued Skuld.

"Why, you!" -- Answered Opal, grinding her teeth.

Then I started to feel a raising hostility, which was rare enough as I normally prefer to mind my own business. Urd had squared herself and started charging an electric bolt on her hand. Opal started to do the same, Skuld took a sphere out of her coat and started to accumulate energy on it, and somehow I just knew how to follow the lead. I put down the bucket of glasses, and now with my hands empty I stepped back into the dim lit room, and between my hands created a bolt of my own. It was very different from theirs, being yet-black with an occasional white streak, while theirs were bluish white, and mine being the size of a soccer ball, while Urd's and Opal's were the size of softballs. It was Skuld the one who saw me first, losing any buildup on her sphere, and shrieking. Her reaction broke the concentration of the other two, who in turn gasped at me. I looked down at me and actually noted that I was carrying the energy ball, and as I saw it start to dissipate, I noted that my hands, my body, and even my clothes had gone as dark as a shadow, and the entire room had gone as dark as a cave. It was then when I felt their fear wash over me, which made me panic, and loose control on the dissipation of the ball, which exploded on my face. Last think I remember is the happy thought that fortunately I was a few steps away from them, so they should be better than me.

* * *

As in the past ones, the next scene picks up were this one ended. I'll upload the next couple of scenes tomorrow. 


	5. Ch1, Scene 6

Well. This is scene 6. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

I awoke again in the temple, feeling slightly disoriented, and with a bad feeling of familiarity. Immediately, I looked down at my arms, and being able to see them again, and clad in the toga, was enough incentive to not panic. I sat up in bed with some effort, and found a tray besides it. On it there was quite a glittering candle (the only source of light around here), a large stack of riceballs, a half-litre glass of milk, and a note. After I had turned off the candle (its wavering light was messing up my perception), I reed the note.

"Dear Ramirez-san:

In case you wake up during the night, feel free to explore the temple, but for your safety please avoid leaving the temple grounds. 

Also, try to keep your power levels down. It took Crystal and me quite a while to calm down my little sister, and having been bathed with Dark Energy will already give her nightmares.

Thanks.

Belldandy"

The note made my brain go to work. First I got the meaning of the second sentence, and remembered the black ball of energy I had made in my hands, and remembered how scared I felt when I noticed it. Second, I wondered what might have happened after I blacked out, and felt relieved that my body was as well as ever. Third, I wished I knew if I had gotten anyone hurt, but after deciding that frightening that little girl was enough for an injury, decided that I should repay them somehow. And to add insult to injury, I could have bet that the lady Belldandy had burned the midnight oil to get her sister to bed, so I should also make up to her. Fourth thing, I checked my wristwatch and reed ten minutes past noon; however, since I could somehow feel that it wasn't anywhere near daytime, I decided that I might be indeed very far from the Great Lakes. By fifth thing I wondered if I had have my wristwatch on for the entire ride, but saw little relevance on that specific thought and threw it out of my mind. Finally, I started to draw conclusions: I should try to find out where the heck I was, what time it was, and in case it really was nighttime, I should wait till six am before making breakfast for my hosts. Moreover, I was to be silent until I saw anyone awake.

After I stuffed a few rice balls in my guts I made my way out of the room, which I had noted as too big to be anyone's bedroom. I thought I could remember seeing a clock hanging in the kitchen, so I decided to find it. After having wandered around the entire ground level, I finally found the kitchen, and then found the clock, which reed 2:30. I gathered all I had gathered so far:

A) No matter how lightly I tried to walk, on the hallways the floorboards had made noise; however, this one was a clicking noise, not a cracking one. *

B) In the place of the bathroom were you normally expect a toilet, I had found a ceramic hole in the floor.

C) The entire place has shoji walls and doors.

D) When I had wandered to the entrance door, I didn't see any kind of a security-oriented lock. Instead, I saw a kind of steep full of shoes.

E) A while ago from the bathroom's window, and now from the kitchen's ones, I was seeing moonlight.

F) My wristwatch and the kitchen clock showed a ten hour difference, and if I remember correctly from my geography classes, corresponds to the difference between Tokyo's time and Eastern Standard, which I think are 2100 and 0700.

[* This is a Japanese architectural feature, specially designed to foil silent attackers.]

Conclusion: I either was in Japan, or in a damn realistic set.

So now I had found out where I was and the real time. Now I only needed to wait for a decent hour to make breakfast. I went to my momentary room and started thinking what to do with three hours and a half, while slowly nibble those delicious, lightly spiced, flaked-shrimp filled riceballs. After a while of munching, I remembered that the Almighty had also asked me to think on my new condition, and I would, at least until it really sinks in.

Great deal I had ever learned about divinity! I was raised a Mexican-rite Christian catholic, but by the age of 15 I had studied the Bible enough to call myself a non-denominational Christian, and by the age of 19 I had learned enough of world religions to then call myself a pantheist-agnostic.* And now, by age 21, I had become a god myself, and still knew for sure almost nothing, except that polytheism was right, that there was a Supreme Being who was God over the gods, that Heaven was nowhere a Paradise, that there was indeed a Hell, that there were Gods walking the Earth, and that if a goddess fainting and another being terrified of me was a sign, deities have limitations. I also remembered that the Norse mythology was based in that the Norse Gods created the Unity of the Norse man and the Norse woman, which later on proved so powerful that killed their own Gods. . . No, give me a second: that's not Norse but Klingon mythology, and the Klingon are nothing but a creation of Star Trek!

After shuffling the information for what seemed an eternity, my little life wisdom told me to not drive into conclusions after minimal experience, and besides, I guessed I would have time to think. Come to think about it, today I had met a cute 24 years old girl, who had been born during the Renaissance. . .

[* Pantheist is one who believes that everything has a part of divinity. Agnostic is one who believes that divine reality is true, but is nowhere human comprehension.]

Suddenly, a very vivid image came into my mind. I was seeing myself in a third-person perspective. My body was reduced to a black outline over a dimly lit background, and was holding a soccer ball- sized black bolt of Energy, whose surface was every now and then dashed by a grey lightning. I heard Skuld's mental voice say "He feels like an Evil!", and after a few seconds, this ball of energy exploded in my hands. It overcame my body as it became visible again, but later on the black energy started to dissipate again, but now very much like a wave of mist, and just with the same feeling of inevitability. As the black mist reached my viewing point, a pair of white gloved hands shot forward in desperation, and . . . I heard a shriek pierce my hears, but now the transmission was over, so it had come from the real world. I instantly knew who had transmitted, and felt overwhelmed by remorse.

"That kid Skuld!"

I picked up the tray that had been laid down for me, and started homing in the source of the scream. By the time I had made it up the stairs I was able to distinguish a sweet lullaby, coming from a western-looking wooden door. I slowly approached, and softly knocked on it. The lullaby ceased, and a slow pace came to the door. As the door opened, I noticed the room was brightly lit, so I turned my head away and shut my eyes in anticipation. To my surprise I didn't feel a blast on my skin, so I slowly opened my eyes and looked in front again. I could clearly see, and saw a very tired and slightly embarrassed Belldandy.

"Oh please, we can't accept your dinner."

"Come on. I'm not hungry."

My stomach decided that this was the best moment to show its disagreement, loudly. I felt quite embarrassed that my body had foiled me, but felt quite relieved that I had made her snicker.

"I think you do need it."

"Don't worry. At very least take the milk." -- . . . -- "Your sister might appreciate it."

She looked backwards into the room, where I was seeing her little sister fiercely hugging her pillow while looking at me, frightened. Just feeling the dread on her eyes was making me feel like a monster, and I didn't like the feeling. 

"I'll better go back down."

"Oh, no. . ."

"I'll be fine." -- With my free hand I patted her shoulder.-- "After seeing her nightmare, I consider it natural from her to fear me." -- I put that hand back under the tray, and started walking back into the shadows. She turned back into the room, but her strong feeling of sorrow followed me.

I made it back to my temporary room, which by then, after seeing a normal room, was starting to look as an unfurnished dinning room. I left the tray where I had found it first, and just felt like taking a breathe of fresh air, after eating two more rice balls. I remembered that the closest door to the outside was in the kitchen, so I went there. After making sure that I would not get locked out, and seeing that the clock then reed 3:15, I opened the exterior door.

I was welcomed by a gush of freezing cold air, loaded with not too soft snow flakes, and I became instantly aware that I wasn't wearing anything else than a roman senatorial woolen toga, and such wasn't designed for any cold weather. However, the cold subsided as soon as I steeped out, the wind seemed to die out in my immediate vicinity, and even the snow stopped feeling unbearably cold under my bare feet. I didn't think much of it, as somehow I was just becoming very aware of my vicinities. Not aware in the sense of seeing them, but in a sense similar to outstretching my fingers and touching everything. I noted that the temple grounds, now snow-covered, were quite large for what you would expect from a country with the population density of Japan: nearly a forty-by-sixty metres rectangle, with the thirty-by-twenty main building mostly centred in them, a few smaller buildings scattered around the complex, and the rest being park and garden. The perimeter wall was about three metres tall and was made out concrete block, yet it seemed more like to keep the style than to keep out intruders. On the wall, just in front of the temple's main entrance, there was a gate leading outside, but some twenty metres down the wall there was a large sliding gate, wide enough for a marching band to pass thru. Directly in front of this gap, there was the second biggest building in the grounds, a ten-by-five shed with a large garage door, and some more pointers suggesting 'garage' or 'machine shop'. After going thru some of the other buildings I lost interest, and turned my attention to an large old tree near my present position, whose defoliated branches expelled a sense of joy. I snapped out of my trance, and went to it, just twenty or so metres around the corner. I pressed a palm against its cold bark 

'Either this is a masochistic tree, it is the reincarnation of a very lethargic bureaucrat, or I have lost it!' I thought with amusement. Then I removed my hand, and tried to shake out this overwhelming feeling of sheer, unintelligent happiness that had permeated my mind. Once I could stop grinning like an 'Ignatius', I noticed IT standing just a couple metres away from me, and apparently gauging me. It was like a metallic snowman, four feet tall, with bird legs, rachitic arms, Mickey Mouse three-fingered hands, and a very wide, dark coloured hard-hat. I would have made something, but it took a step in my direction, and extended his two arms toward me, one with its palm down, and the other holding a bottle. I leaned forward and reed the bottle's label, which said 'Holy Water'. I smiled.

"Want me to dip that thing on my arm, little fellow?"

The robot took a second, but nodded. I stretched my hand to take the bottle, but it took a step back and dodged my hand. I retrieved my arm, and risked something else.

"Then I guess you want to pour it yourself, don't you?"

It immediately nodded, with more energy. I obliged and pushed forward my other arm, the one in line with his free hand. It quickly snatched my wrist, and although it's grip was gentle, the clicking feeling his hand was conveying was making me pray that he liked the results of his test. It seemed unfazed, and single-handedly uncapped the bottle and pureed it from my elbow to my wrist. I was dreading the results, but after a few seconds passed by, the bot released me, and bowed before me. I sighed and returned the bow, and the robot spun around and calmly walked away.

"I hope this won't be my day by day!" -- I spoke to the air. I didn't expect it to answer back.

"Hopefully it won't be, Ramirez-Sensei."

I spun around, looking for the source of the voice. I found a girl about the age of Skuld, with waist long sulphur-yellow hair, a flimsy and unprotective looking sun dress (which was a toy for the wind), and a sad demeanor. Not knowing what else to do, I answered her with my typical, signature greeting.

"Hi there." -- Then I tried to say something a bit more brainy. -- "And sorry, but why did you call me 'Master'?"

"Well, Belldandy-sama told me you had been commissioned to teach me, and as such your appropriate title toward me would be 'Sensei'."

Her words made sense, but not their meaning.

"Uh. . . but how can I be your Sensei if I don't know a thing at all?"

"Well, she also mentioned that I'll need to learn from you just as you learn. Besides, she says you were a mortal a short time ago, and that if I'm ever to have a life bearing world, I need to learn what is to be a mortal."

'She', 'have', 'life-bearing world'? Who the heck am I talking to!?

"And whom am I talking to?"

"My name is Terai, Sensei. I'm a proto-star."

"A proto-star, as in up there?" -- I asked, while dubiously raising my left index straight up. She lifted her own right hand and pointed somewhere else in the sky. 

"Actually, my body is on that direction. . . but taking into account this planet's atmospheric distortion, you should be able to see me there." -- She moved her hand a millimetre. I was looking into the point of the sky she was pointing at, but saw nothing but indistinct stars. After a few seconds I looked down, back at her, and noticed she didn't seem sad anymore. That by itself was a relief, but I wanted to be right to business for the time being.

"And sorry Terai, I wouldn't want to be rude, but I don't think you came just to introduce yourself."

Her sad expression overcame her features again. I felt bad.

"You are right, Sensei. Belldandy had told me that you would be briefed and formally introduced to the household over breakfast, but after you left a while ago, Skuld wanted to come after you and apologise. Belldandy stopped her and told her you would want to be left alone for a while. I wasn't sure, so once Skuld and Belldandy finally returned to sleep, and felt someone using clairvoyance in the garden, I came down." -- . . . -- "Did you really want to be left alone, Ramirez-san?"

'So that's how I surveyed the place', I thought. But then I concentrated on her question.

"Mm . . . well, yes." -- . . . -- " Thanks for making sure, anyway." -- I tried to give her a reassuring smile, yet I know I failed. Anyhow, she returned me a confident one, and started walking away.

"By the way. . ." -- She turned. -- "Do you know at what time is breakfast served here?"

"Around 8 AM, why?"

"I'm just curious, thanks."

She turned again, and left me with my thoughts. If breakfast was served around eight, and I had gotten the right impression and Belldandy was half the good housekeeper she looked like, then she must start cooking it around seven, but would be up at least half an hour before; therefore, if I wanted to cook breakfast, I should start to do so by 6 AM, cook something that can be either eaten cold or left simmering for a long time, and even before starting I should have found the dinning room's table, and returned it to its rightful place. I looked again at my watch, and after making a quick calculation, I determined the time to be a quarter before four. I would at least have an hour and a half, which I could spend wondering what would I tell my mother, trying to start a conversation with the robot I had seen earlier, or theorising on why my feet were still feeling warm, while they weren't even melting the snow I was standing on. 

It took me close to ten more minutes to notice that neither had I stopped Terai from calling me 'Master', nor had I told her to call me otherwise than by my last name. I guessed it would wait till breakfast, as almost anything else. 

* * *

Well, this is the last complete scene that I have finished so far. I hope to finish the next one soon, although its so long so far, that I might end up chopping it, so it adjusts to my present format. 

* * *

I hope you have enjoyed what you have red so far. Either way, please Review. 


	6. Ch1, Scene 7, part 1

Well, this one isn't even a complete scene. It is actually the first part of a very long one.

* * *

At about 5:15 I started to make my move, since I wasn't sure how much time it would take me to find and move the table. I walked back to the kitchen door, but before entering I noticed that the external wall leading to the dinning room, seemed awfully thick. I walked to it, and after finding were it had a door, I opened it. I was greeted by the table, which was standing on its side, on a narrow walkway. As I closed the door to block the moonlight, and my eyes adapted to the interior light, I groaned: the table was a twelve-by-four feet, solid slab of ebony wood, and had, to my infortune, six half-metre long and very chunky square legs, which spelt "Heavy". What really topped the cake was that I had decided to make the move at the very early morning, so even if I puffed too hard I might make more noise than acceptable.

"Found it." -- I mumbled under my breath. 

I opened the other wall's door, which to my pleasure happened to clear enough space for the table to fit longitudinally, and with room to spare. But there I saw my bedroll still extended, and with a tray by its side. I quickly ate the four remaining rice balls, rolled up the bedroll, put both the bedroll and the tray on a far corner of the room, and measured my work ahead: I would have to carry, at the very least, two hundred kilograms of wooden table a little more than a metre, but also had to place it on its legs from a sideways position, and had to avoid banging anything at all costs. The good news was that I wouldn't need to rotate it, but the bad news would be that I would need to work wearing a toga and not even wearing shoes. I approached it and finally decided my course of action.

After ten minutes of warm-up I crouched with my back against the centre of the flat undersurface, raised my right shoulder till it was firmly in contact with the upper central leg, put my hands ahead on the leg, and tilted the table over me. 'Now there is no turning back' I thought, as I knew that even if I tried to tilt it back upright, it would make enough noise to lift the death. Once I felt confident enough I spread my arms forty five degrees from my body and put them as flat as possible against the wood surface, and gathering every gram of strength I had in my body, I stretched my legs, lifting the table a good feet and a half off the ground. Now effectively carrying the weight on nothing but my shoulder (damn slippery toga!), I stepped forward. The floor was screeching dangerously at every diminutive step I made, so it took me close to a minute to walk the metre, and an eternity to bend my knees enough for the lower legs of the table to quietly touch down. I almost fell backwards as I had let too much pressure go before making sure it was stable, so I had to quickly lift it up (again) and as I felt a blinding pain from my collarbone, I made a bit of a racket just to regain my balance. * I froze as soon as I stabilized, but my shoulder wasn't ready to wait, so after just a few seconds I was already kneeling again. As soon as I felt the lower legs touch ground I made a quick step forward, and although the left side skidded a bit, the right side gripped instantly, and now I had an initial angle to work with. I continued to bend down, and as I approached the floor, I extended my arms forward, and as I could finally shift the weight into my hands, I extended my legs to the sides before they could get trapped, and ended the lifting more or less like a push-up, but mostly on my left arm. 

The entire ordeal had lasted less than five minutes, but it had taken the best of me. Once the three remaining legs had landed, not too loudly, I just remained there, on the floor under the table, panting for the world to listen. I was thinking that I would not really have minded if someone came to help me now, but after the adrenaline finally had worn out, I had regained enough of my senses to thank the Heavens that nobody had come down. Remembering that I still had to cook breakfast, I started to crawl from under the table.

"Great, so now the entire breakfast plan will go to hell!" -- I muttered under my breath. I was now out of the table and sitting, and didn't even need to look down to know that in the middle of the space between my neck and my right shoulder, a purple bulge was starting to grow; nonetheless, as it grew I gradually lost feeling from the front of my arm, all the way down to my thumb and index fingers. ** I tested the mobility of my arm, and after checking that I could hardly lift it without grinding enamel of my teeth, I proceeded to rearrange the toga to cover the bulge.

[ * Author note: if you think I'm exaggerating, try carrying a little more than double your own body weight on your collarbone, and after letting it rest there for a minute or two, raise it ten centimetres and let it fall again. If your collarbone doesn't snap like a twig, consider yourself fortunate. Yet, even after your clavicle is gone, you wouldn't necessarily drop the load, as there are still plenty of muscles and ligaments to go.]

[ ** This should be anatomically correct. A big enough swelling around the clavicle area might strangulate and shut down the nerves of the frontal upper arm, the frontal lower arm, and the frontal portion of the hand (index, thumb, middle, and one side of the ring finger), in that order. Since the nerves feeding the rest of the arm are progressively deeper, they are really unlikely to be shut down by a survivable impact. More to the point, it really feels weird to not feel half of your ring finger while you can still move it, or to be able to extend your arm but not be able to contract it again.] 

'Lets see what can I do with a single hand', I thought, and while keeping my right arm tightly against my side, I stood up, went to the kitchen, and started looking around.

Ow. Have I mentioned that my collarbone also hurt if I made fast head movements?

I started to mumble while doing my rummaging. "Lets see . . . oh, damn fridge light! Well, there are eggs, some meats and milk . . . over here is a juicer . . . a wok and a rice cooker . . . a mountain of carrots. No, I won't be able to peel them! Well, there are also like twenty oranges, and some grapefruits . . . a couple large pitchers . . . and there is a powered citrus juicer! Good." I took out the pitchers, the citrus juicer and plenty of fruit, and after washing and cutting the fruit (a very slow process if you can't hold it), I started filling the first pitcher with grapefruit juice. I was happy to be doing some work even over a broken collarbone, but about the time I had gone by half the grapefruits the kitchen lights flickered on . . .

"Ouch!" -- By instinct I brought my left hand to cover my eyes, but it was covered in grapefruit juice . . . -- "Yeauuuu!!" 

"Oh my!" -- . . . -- "I'm sorry, Ramirez-san."

That voice. Sweet, clear, and with a certain power.

"Don't worry, Miss Belldandy. My fault."

Well, I had dropped a grapefruit half when the lights came on, so now I was on the floor looking for it, but my left hand only found a gentle pair of hands.

"Lets get your eyes washed, Ramirez-san." -- She guided me to the sink, so I could wash my eyes. While I was doing so, I felt something fall out of my left eye, and my vision from that eye went white immediately. I carefully reopened my right eye, and saw a small black disk resting on the sink catcher. 

'Have I been wearing the contacts all along?' I thought in amazement. I picked it quickly, and turned toward Belldandy. 

"Er . . . sorry, Miss Bell . . . "

"Oh, of course, Ramirez-san"

I thought she would guide me to the bathroom, but she instead took the contact from my hand, and with her other hand, ever gently, opened my eyelid.

"Arrgh!" -- . . . -- "Oh, sorry, Miss Belldandy!"

"No, I apologise to you . . ."

No need to write don't the next exchange. Lets just say we were retro feeding each others' apologies until we could agree that we both were sorry, and that the best idea was for her to guide me to the nearest bathroom, where I should be able to put the contact in the dark. While I was inside the bathroom, looking at my reflection and reflecting on what I saw, I started to hear a sweet but harsh voice in the back of my mind.

'Rats, now I am even starting to connect with her', I thought. I also remembered that I had been thinking about asking her about this telepathy. As soon as I got out, and just for the heck of it, I tried to engage her.

'Er, sorry, Miss Belldandy,' I tried mentally.

"Oh yes, Ramirez-san!" -- She spoke up. -- "I have wanted to talk to you about your telepathy since Crystal told me of her observations."

"Well, I also wanted to ask you about it. Not having intimacy inside my head is worrying me, not to say that ball of energy I made."

"I know. Crystal also told me about the incident outside the Almighty's office, and she has the theory that you were retro feeding the fear of all involved. She said that if she hadn't thrown a wave of confusion at the assembled mob, you might not even be alive right now. "

I hadn't thought about that one and the realisation made me shudder, but I quickly regained focus on what I had wanted to aks her.

"Well, Belldandy-san, I wanted to ask you if you knew a way to make it stop."

"Crystal had told me so, and while she was here we debated how it could be done. We concluded that it wouldn't be an easy task, but that I shouldn't have a problem. Do I have your permission to go ahead?"

'Uh, permission?' -- I thought that hers was quite a peculiar choice of words. -- "By all means, go ahead." 

"Then, could you follow me?"

"Of course."

We just walked around the corner, but instead of going back to the kitchen, we entered the door opposite to it, leading into the dinning room. She turned on the lights of the far side of the room, and turned extending a hand towards the far door; however, she put it back down, and looked around confused. I also looked, and only saw that the table was slightly more misaligned than I thought, but other than that I hadn't even scratched the polished floor. 

"H . . . How did you use telekinesis without all of us noticing it? Have you learned to mask your power?"

Telekinesis. So there is something such as telekinesis, and I stupidly almost broke my back to do the job the old fashioned macho way. The strong sense of irony made me want to joke, even as she was quite concerned. I prepared my best aristocratic voice . . .

"Telekinesis, Miss Belldandy? No, I didn't. I used an even stronger kind of magic: machismo!"

I remarked my declaration by raising my good arm and bulging its muscles. That at least got a good giggle out of Belldandy, and I was about to do more humour when I remembered part of the determination I had made during the night: for my own good, I would avoid flirting with anyone until I'm sure they are available. So, I steeled myself, made my way to the other side of the table, kneeled down, and tried to make my best imitation possible of an old monk.

"Well, Miss Belldandy, I would wish us to get down to business. I guess you might have something else to do."

She took a second to react at my sudden change of mood, but she sat down opposite to me. 

"All right, I think we can start whenever you are ready." -- She said, calmly. 

I was curious to ask her what would the procedure involve, but I was a bit more interested in seeing my telepathy go away: My mental link with Belldandy had already strengthened enough to pick stray words. To my relief, what I picked next included " . . . get started." Then she picked up her hands and started to gesture toward me, while murmuring. After like a minute I started to smell ozone coming her way, and remembered the exact words I had used to approve her actions: 'By all means.' I gulped at the now obvious implications, closed my eyes, and after another ten seconds or so, felt a very pleasant wave of heat wash over my head, from where it started to dissolve into my body. It was a very pleasant sensation, except when it came in contact with my injury, where it created a very acute pain. I clenched my teeth waiting for it to be over, but to my surprise the wave disappeared right where it was, and Belldandy was speaking, worried.

"Oh Ramirez-san, why didn't you tell me you had a broken collarbone?"

'So it is actually broken' I thought.

"Well, it doesn't hurt so much. Anyway, I didn't thought . . . it would be polite to worry you this early in the morning!"

Okay, that was stupid, but I hadn't thought on an excuse. I thought it had been stupid from me to not think that the fracture would become a topic of discussion, but felt relieved that Belldandy smiled.

"Oh, it wouldn't have been a burden at all, Ramirez-san. Come here, let me mend it."

"Okay".

I stood up, walked around the table, and sat again by her side, while she had turned to a position were she would be facing me again. She did some muttering and raised her left hand over my shoulder, and after a few seconds of feeling like a wet, scalding-hot towel had been dropped there, a warm feeling rolled down my right arm like a wave. Once all the sensation had passed, I moved my arm around and looked at it. I was quite impressed to not feel pain, but I was even more impressed that now my arm was now devoid of scars. Most of the scars were just the typical cuts and scrapes you see in someone that had an active childhood, but I really noted two missing: a long but faint one I got from almost being ran over as a kid (one I would ratter forget), and another small but easy to spot I got in from playing with a dog of mine, which I would ratter see back with me. Anyway, I was very grateful. Remembering to not embarrass the goddess, I lowered my head on a short bow.

"Thanks, Miss Belldandy."

"Never mind." -- She now started to make motions to stand up, but as I had got back in my feet I noticed she was wavering, so took a good hold on her shoulders.

"Are you okay, Miss Belldandy?"

"Oh sorry, I guess I used too much energy."

I bit my lip. I had made her overextend herself, and now she was weak.

"How can I help you?" -- I said, ratter nervous. She didn't answer. Instead, she put a blissful face, closed eyes, and let her body go limp. She took me by surprise, but I could still catch her, and now alright panicking, I started to yell for help.


	7. Author Notes 1

Author Notes:  
  
Thanks to everyone who has red this far. Sorry if I'm taking ages, but first, I'm way more of a reviewer than a writer; second, I'm obsessed with editing my own writing (I write in average half a page a day, but by the end of the day I won't have left more than two or three lines); third, between reviewing other people and my own life, I can't devote but sundays to do some actual writing; and fourth, I'm not always feeling inspired to write on a given story. Either way, I hope to be posting the next part (chapter 1, scene 7, part 2) in two or three weeks.  
  
Dan Inverse: Thanks, and I will.  
  
Moocowgrl: A guy. I just rechecked the story so far as to scene 3, and even if I hadn't decribed my body directly, my main character is every now and then addressed as "Mr. Ramirez". You might read again. About your own story, I remember that both of the schools that visited Howgarts for the TriWizard tournament (Dummstrangs and Beauxbattons, one from a secret location in northern Europe, and the other somewhere warm in France) where co-ed, too. If you want to create an unknown all-females boarding school, it would be easier for you to locate it somewhere like the Americas, or Australia. It isn't completely necessary to rewrite your story (the three paragraphs of it), as far as it still makes sense. If you are just writing yourself and a few female friends of yours into the Harry Potter universe, you don't have to add males to the picture. Matter of fact, you might as well ask them if they want to help you write (after all, they'll be appearing on the story). "RNRN" sounds to me like a typo.  
  
AmiLeeRose: I'm still alive. Sorry for not having gotten around to review you, but so far I haven't still gone all the way around my favorites list, and in general I like to be orderly (otherwise I might leave someone without reviews). I promise you that I will review you before march 5. 


	8. Ch1, Scene 7, part 2

Help came ratter quickly. Three seconds had hardly passed before Terai appeared on the door. After depositing Belldandy's upper body on the table, I stood up and pulled Terai from where she stood.  
  
"Terai, please help her! You know how to, don't you?"  
  
"Well yeah, but. . ."  
  
"Then do it!"  
  
"Eh . . . well, could you pick up her face?"  
  
"Of course, of course!"  
  
I pulled Belldandy's upper body off the table, and sat her against my own body. With one hand I pulled her face upward, while with the other cleared her hair off her face. Then I looked up at Terai, very nervous after feeling that Belldandy was cold.  
  
"Well Terai, just do it!"  
  
She kneeled by us and extended a finger toward Belldandy's forehead mark, but then stopped.  
  
"Hey Terai, what are you waiting for?!"  
  
"No, I can't do this. If I do it, I will overload Belldandy." - She looked up to me. - "Remember I told you I'm a proto-star?"  
  
"Well, I guess you might have a point." - . . . - "Hey, let me check something."  
  
"Uh. . ."  
  
Since the Almighty told me that many previous Dark Gods were used as power plants down on Hell, I thought that I might as well try to power her up. I placed my index and middle finger of my free hand in front of Belldandy's forehead mark, and concentrated on putting all my strength on the tip of my fingers. After a moment my entire skin had been covered in blackness, but after a bit more focussing I concentrated the energy on my arm, then on my hand, and then on my fingertips. Then I touched her mark with my fingers, and the energy flowed into her.  
  
Her eyes spun open. She took off the floor, looking around like about to panic, and after looking like she wanted to go in two directions at a time, she stopped and literally popped into a dozen full-sized versions of herself. One of them took Terai and sat with her across the table, two more took my bed cloths and disappeared out a door, one sat at the table by me, and the rest ran into the kitchen. She seemed quite unfazed.  
  
I was quite fazed. Specially when I saw that the eyes of this Belldandy were jet-black, even on their sclerotia.* Her goddess marks were also that same black, and heck, even her lips looked a few shades darker. It was kind of scary to see her in the eye and not see anything. Apparently she noticed my state.  
  
[* The sclerotia is the white of the eye, or what is visible as white around the iris.]  
  
"Don't worry, Ramirez-san. Apparently you gave me far too much power, and I had to break down into doppelgangers in order to dissipate the excess energy."  
  
Well, that answers to the why. . .  
  
"But how did you . . . well, how did Belldandy broke down?'  
  
"I am Belldandy, even if now I am twelve. And as a god you will be able to break down one day, once you achieve enough power." - She stopped, looked me up-down, and giggled. - "Well, once you learn how to, as power you already have."  
  
I kind of smiled. She smiled openly at me, and I lost my smile again. I looked down.  
  
"Well. . . do you know why did your eyes black out?"  
  
"Sure. As a goddess of Light, my own system doesn't normally process Dark energy, and in fact is trying to spend it the quickest way possible. In this case, besides normal spending I am also letting it evaporate out off my goddess markings, my eyes, and to a lesser extent by the rest of my skin." - . . . - "Oh, tea is coming."  
  
I didn't know what to make of the last she said, until I looked at the door. Another Belldandy came from the kitchen carrying two trays loaded with tea and cookies. She first left one by Terai and her Belldandy, and then rounded the table and put the tray by my Belldandy and me.  
  
"How much sugar with your tea, Ramirez-san?"  
  
"Please only two, Miss Belldandy."  
  
She turned at the tray, served me a cup, prepared her own, positioned it by the place where the other Belldandy sat, and sat on top of her. So suddenly there was only a perfectly normal-looking one where two had been, sitting in the exact same position as had sat the one I had been talking to. I would have jumped off my skin if I hadn't caught myself.  
  
"Er. . . sorry, Miss Belldandy. What did I just saw?"  
  
"Oh, I had to partially reintegrate to control the energy expenditure ratio, and from twelve I am now only nine. This way I will remain subdivided long enough to brief you, chat with Terai, and still have made breakfast on time."  
  
"Well, let me start from the beginning: it was my idea to resuscitate you, so I should face the consequences. Terai didn't even tell me how to do things."  
  
"I know, Ramirez-san. Terai already told me so; and no, there aren't going to be consequences for either of you. She already told me that you were nearby panic, not to say that you have no experience." - . . . - "Passing to other businesses, she already told me you two already met, around midnight; therefore, I won't need to introduce you to her. . ."  
  
Then she started to brief me, and answer my questions. Of all the stuff she told me, this is what I remember right away:  
  
1) Terai, even after actually being millions of years old, had in fact a mental age of around thirteen. It wasn't only that stars were extremely long living compared to mortals, but also that the Almighty had put them on a different time frame, just so they wouldn't get too bored. Also, Terai would comparatively have a mental age around eighteen once she matured and ignited.  
  
2)Terai wasn't actually among us. What we saw of her was actually a projection of her consciousness projected through a subatomic wormhole inside her projected body.  
  
3) The reason why Terai had been reluctant to energize Belldandy had been that last time she tried to energize a goddess, they had ended with 12,786,737 Skulds. And even so, it took an entire night for Skuld to use all the energy.  
  
3.1) I had given Belldandy enough power to create about three dozen regular (metre-high) doppelgangers, but she decided to break down into regular- sized ones so she would minimize the risk of having her personality broken down among her doppelgangers. Not to say that this way she was consuming the energy much faster.  
  
4) The reason why Belldandy kept fainting was that she had raised a energy shield around the temple (and surroundings) that was of far higher security than she normally did. And because of the higher security, it took her a lot more energy than normal to set it up, and until she really adapted to setting it up, it would be draining up to three quarters of her energy.  
  
5) As I already knew, I was an unusual god; nevertheless, it surprised even her to see the magnitude of the power I was able to conjure. It takes a mayor energy load to overload a First Class Goddess such as herself, and the fact that it took me just a few seconds to call enough power, suggested that the power scale on which I was standing was out of the roof.  
  
6) I would need to have my power limited, even if just for my own sake. My uniform would include limiters, so it wouldn't be a problem.  
  
7) Keeping myself in an illuminated environment would prove useless as a power limitation method. Apparently one of my instinctive powers was to create darkness around me, not to say that during the night I would have power wether or not I was standing in the dark.  
  
8) The list of my known powers so far included Dark vision, Dark Energy conversion, creation of darkness, a never seen before kind of telepathy, and focussed emotional feedback. The first one was just that my godly eyes were adapted to see in the dark at uncannily low levels of light, the second and third ones marked me as God of Darkness, the fort one was that I could effortlessly tap and link the minds of individuals, even if they were heavily fire-walled(e.g. gods), and the last one was derived from my telepathy, and meant that I was able to amplify, and would be able to manipulate, emotions. None of this powers were common, specially all together. Besides the last one, from which I could receive orientation from any number of love goddesses, most of my learning would be trial and error.  
  
8.1) By the way, for now my telepathy would be under my voluntary control, instead of being free to tap everyone around me.  
  
9) The ball of energy I had made wasn't actually something to do with powers. It was actually a technique I had picked up through the telepathic link.  
  
9.1) This property of my telepathy might make my learning process an extremely fast one.  
  
10) Just as I was starting to suspect, brawling was part of everyday life up in Heaven. After all, property damage could be repaired shiftily, healing was easy, everyone had more or less power to back up their words, and in fact many gods took it as a form of exercise. On the other hand, mayor fights were extremely rare, to the point that non had occurred for the last nine centuries, after an old Pharaoh and a newly ascended Christian crusader (the Early Medieval Angel of European Martial Arts) decided that they didn't like each other. After the Almighty deranged the two into fifth class Gods (a class created for the two of them), and commissioned them as office boys for an indefinite period, no more real fights had ever erupted.  
  
10.1) As Christianity doesn't accept more gods than the Almighty himself, all Christian divine entities were called Angels, Archangels, Saints, the Virgin Mary, and Ladies. None of them liked to be called Gods.  
  
11) Besides demons and Evils, not all gods were good guys. For instance, there was the Modern God of War, who although didn't specially liked having all-out monsters and genocides like Hitler hailing up at him, didn't mind to see millions of soldiers die during WWII.  
  
12) As soon as we were done with breakfast, I would have to go back to Heaven and receive my official assignment. And now she was accompanying me, so it would be unlikely that past incidents would repeat.  
  
13) She explained me that she was on Earth because of Keiichi, that short guy I had seen earlier yesterday. Apparently he wished for her to stay with him forever, she very much approved the wish, and later on her sisters came down to Earth to be with her. Terai was just a friend of Skuld that was staying on Earth on a short, ten year visit. Short from a star's perceptive, that is.  
  
By the way, Urd was half-demon.  
  
14) Breakfast was ready and the entire household was up and about by now. We would continue our discussion later.  
  
As on cue, four other copies of Belldandy came out from the kitchen, and both the one with me and the one with Terai stood up, took rags from two of the newcomers, and started to clean the table. As soon as they were finished the others placed the food on the table, and while three of them returned to the kitchen, the other three aligned and joined. Meanwhile, another Belldandy came in from the opposite door, guiding in the half- asleep image of the guy who had taken her yesterday, and that now I knew as Keiichi.  
  
"Good morning, there!" - I said. He looked at my general direction and waved his free hand.  
  
"Gur morning. Keiichi, here." - I (and Terai behind me) snickered. His Belldandy guided him to the table, were he stumbled, and then she joined with the one present and sat by him. Then another Belldandy came guiding an Urd looking worse than Keiichi, as she was also caddling her head.  
  
"Hey there, good morning!"  
  
"Goo' morning there."  
  
After leaving Urd at the table, that Belldandy went to the kitchen. Meanwhile the three ones that had previously gone to the kitchen, arrived back at the dinning room. One was carrying two pitchers of juice, another a large jar of thea and a pitcher of milk, and the last one was carrying a pile of plates, with a large ceramic liquor bottle on top. After setting the table, they joined in the one sitting with Keiichi (something that Keiichi took easily, not even putting down his just served cup of thea). Then, another Belldandy came holding hands with a radiant Skuld, who lost her smile (and most of her colour) as soon as she saw me. She clung to Belldandy's hand for support, and still keeping an eye on me, looked up her eyes. Belldandy directed her a reassuring look (even as her eyes were still all-round black), patted her head, and gently pushed her ahead. Skuld took a bit of initiative and finally sat down nearby Terai, although she was still on the further corner of the table. She gave me a small, but true, smile.  
  
'She still fears me, but she has decided to give me a chance." - I thought, while giving her a smile back. I mouthed a 'thanks' on my lips, and her smile grew.  
  
Man, I would wish I knew more people as open-hearted as this little girl.  
  
Time for introspection was now up, as people had started to attack the food. Apparently the last two copies of Belldandy had reintegrated and sat down, cue on which Urd started stuffing her plate, and everyone followed. It took me half a second to notice that I had a suspicious-looking omelette in front of me, which also had a suspicious taste.  
  
"Er. . . Sorry, Miss Belldandy: would this happen to be Mexican Omelette?"  
  
"Oh yeah, Ramirez-san. I thought you would appreciate it."  
  
"Ma'am, I don't appreciate it, but love it! I don't think I have eaten one so good since my grandma stopped cooking."  
  
That was true. The tomato indeed had the distinctive taste of a subtle griddling before being pureed and fried, while the green hot peppers were fresh, and had been lightly griddled before being sliced and fried with the tomato. Then, after adding the right balance of herbs, onion, and garlic cloves, the eggs had been added on the boiling sauce, and had been lightly mixed right on the fire, instead of being blended beforehand. The mixture looked speckled in green, white, yellow and red, while none of the ingredients had a taste truly dominant*, and was clearly far superior than anything served north of Rio Grande**. I was nearly speechless.  
  
[*Sounds easy? Its easy to get an edible result, but getting the perfect taste is as easy as balancing a pizza without spinning it.]  
  
[**Mexican cuisine with anything resembling quality is almost unheard of anywhere in the world (except of Mexico, of course). Besides, Yanks have popularized the belief that Taco Bell and such business serve Mexican food, while they actually serve Texan, or some north-Mexican that isn't even fairly representative of Mexican cuisine.]  
  
"I'm happy you like it, Ramirez-san."  
  
Another matter that had been nagging me.  
  
"Oh, and please call me just Nacho. All of you, please. Nobody ever addresses me by my last name."  
  
"And why's that?" - Asked Urd.  
  
"Well, firstly because. . ." - Wait. I wouldn't tell them about the thing with my father! - ". . . 'Ramirez' is quite a common last name back in Mexico, although it might be just to contrast my actual name."  
  
"And what might that be?" - asked Keiichi, intrigued.  
  
"It is 'Ignacio Alejandro Ramirez Martin del Campo'".  
  
Call it 'stupid show-off', but I have always loved to see the variety of reactions my complete name gets from people; however, I wouldn't get much amusement this time. Keiichi was the only one who chocked, and I only got a raised eyebrow from Skuld, and a curios look from Terai.  
  
"And what was that?" - Keiichi asked, after sipping some orange juice. I repeated it to him, pointing my first (Ignacio), second (Alejandro), first surname (Ramirez), and second surname (Martin del Campo), and then I had a good time trying to teach him the pronunciation, with the help of Skuld. I better left it in 'just Nacho' as soon as Belldandy stepped in to help.  
  
Something curios I later thought about, is that I hadn't as much as twitched the first time he said 'Igunaashio', while I normally would have jerked at the mispronunciation of my name. The calmness of the place might had already started to permeate into me.  
  
The rest of the breakfast went quietly, as we all concentrated in the food. Although I didn't forget my table manners, I was quite hungry, so I did eat lots, and was the last to finish.  
  
"Satisfied?" - Asked Urd, quite amused, as I pushed my plate away.  
  
"Quite. Everything was delicious."  
  
Then I actually tried to make memory of how much I had gone thru. If I was right, I had eaten at least the equivalent to five eggs from the omelette, and at least one serving from each of the other six platters on the table, and had drank two glasses of milk and at least one of orange juice. Joined that with the fact that I had eaten the rice balls not so far ago, I was surprised to not feel anywhere full, and actually having thought that I could take something for the road.  
  
'So I did indeed eat like a vacuum cleaner. . .' I thought, feeling embarrassed.  
  
"Er. . . sorry. I just couldn't stop eating this food."  
  
It wasn't entirely a lie, although I thought it might have been nicer to actually watch the quantity I was eating.  
  
"Do not feel embarrassed, Nacho-san." -Started Belldandy.- "So far we do not know what is your secondary energy source, and it might be food."  
  
"Er. . . Sorry, but what is a secondary energy source?"  
  
"Well, it is a different way from which gods get power, besides of System Energy, or in your case Dark one." - Belldandy answered. - "Although it is hardly as powerful as our primaries, it still supplements us, or keeps us alive whenever the System goes down. . ."  
  
If I had still being stuffing my mouth, half of the table would have received food when I stood up and shrieked.  
  
"WHAT!? System Energy going down? As on turning down a switch!"  
  
"Well, actually is more like a computer crashing and having to be reset, but the result is the same." - Intervened Skuld.  
  
Belldandy gave me a bit of an explanation. Up in Earth's Heaven there is a supercomputer that controls Earth, and gods are more or less technicians dedicated to keep it running (although they would be many other things on their free time). By all accounts, every now and then when something really wrong would happen, the computer would crash, and would need to be turned- off for repairs. In the time being Earth would run in inertia, and all gods would be left to power themselves by their secondary energy sources. Since Belldandy's S.E.S. was sleep, Urd's was alcohol, and Skuld's was ice cream; whenever the System came down Belldandy would sleep all day, Urd would drown on sake, and Skuld would process ice-cream like there was no tomorrow.  
  
"Not that Urd wouldn't drink herself under the table under normal circumstances." - Said Skuld, from her side of the table.  
  
"Oh, shut up, underdeveloped annoyance!" - shot back Urd. - "It isn't like you didn't raid the freezer every time we get distracted."  
  
"Yeah Urd, shut me up, you drunk good for nothing!" - Skuld shot back, and jumped to her feet.  
  
"Why, you!" - Urd jumped on her feet, and faced her sister. I felt energy starting to crackle in the air, and recognized the feeling as the same I had felt the first time I woke up at the temple. I was even starting to feel the same headache as last time, and I was feeling like joining the fight. I tried to contain myself but just couldn't take it. The discussion above me continued escalating, and the energy kept rising up, but I wouldn't hear a thing of it: I was just trying to keep myself under control, and with my butt in the ground. My hands were busy massaging my shins, and my eyes were shut tight to keep them from tempting me into trouble. I was so absorbed in keeping calm that I didn't notice that the argument had ended, or that my body was feeling cold as ice. I didn't listen to a thing either, until I heard a very concerned Belldandy speaking to me.  
  
"Nacho-san, please open your eyes!"  
  
I complied, quite confused. First thing I saw was that Belldandy had moved beside me and was eyeing me looking concerned, and Keiichi behind her was looking at me with his eyes open like platters. To the other side of the table, I found Terai eyeing me curiously, and Urd trying to calm down a very frightened Skuld behind her. I gulped at the sight of Skuld. Then I finally looked down at me: My body had gone into such a matte-black that my hands were nothing but dark outlines against the wooden table, and even the robes I was wearing there nothing but outlines against the floor. I would have freaked out if this had not had happened earlier. I wasn't swimming in tranquillity, though.  
  
"Please don't panic, Nacho-san. Just try to relax." - I heard Belldandy saying by me. I tried my best to comply. I lowered my hands to the table, and just tried to breath and concentrate in nothing. Slowly, but the blackness seemed to boil off my skin in wisps of black smoke, and I finally regained my colours.  
  
Think about "regainig my colours" as a figure of speech, as I was terribly pale. Belldandy looked proud of me, though.  
  
"You did well, Nacho-san." . . . "If you are ready, we'll go as soon as I've washed the dishes."  
  
"Well, Miss Belldandy, I wanted to ask something. How is that I became a god?"  
  
"Frankly, that's exactly one of the thinks we are going up to find out. Moreover, we don't want to tell you about our own preliminary conclusions because, as we don't know to what degree they are correct, they would only confuse you in the long run."  
  
For a moment I pondered whether I had just been insulted or not, but after a second became sure that Belldandy hadn't meant it on a bad way. It took me another second to come out with an answer that wouldn't make me sound either stupid or sarcastic . . .  
  
"Thanks . . . I think."  
  
Not too stupid, anyway.  
  
She beamed a smile at me, stood up, and picked up my plate. I looked around the table and saw the size of the work she had ahead, and I quickly stood up and picked up two platters before me.  
  
"Oh, don't worry, Nacho-san."  
  
"Please let me help you . . ."  
  
"If you want to help, then help to carry the platters into the kitchen, and then stand out of the way." - Urd cut me. Then she lifted her own (with the ceramic bottle on top), and walked into the kitchen, followed by Terai and the rest of the household. So I picked up the mostly empty platter in front of me and followed everyone into the kitchen.  
  
Belldandy was just standing in the middle of the kitchen, while everyone left their plates on the countertops around. I thought it to be a weird disposition to start washing, until I began feeling how the air around Belldandy was slightly shimmering with Energy. Just with a gesture of her hands, some counters opened and from them Tuppers flew, while the platters that still held some food slowly flew to intercept Tuppers of assorted sizes, and the food transfered itself into them, and then lids flew and capped the Tuppers, and then they slowly glided toward the now open fridge, and in they went. As the fridge's door closed itself, I noticed that now all the plates and platters there slowly parading in front of Belldandy's view, and that she was ocasionally gesturing one or another to tip itself into one that was just levitating to a side, receiving the food scraps. And once the last plate had passed in front of her, this plate with the scraps went into a counter under the sink, and returned empty.  
  
I just guessed that under the sink was hidden the garbage can, or compost box, or whatever they did with the garbage.  
  
Next, Belldandy gestured toward the faucet, and it opened wide, but the water didn't fall into the sink. It instead snaked in mid air, and began gathering into a steaming, turbulent blob. I sideways noted that now all the plates and platters were forming a big stack in the air, slightly spaced, and noted that now the blob of water was positively steaming, and spinning like a top. I saw that the spinning blob had just opened up in the middle, and was slowly transforming itself into a wide, tall, and thin- walled drum, which only seemed to be spinning faster and faster as it closed up to the stacked plates, and just so smoodly began squidding the surface of the stack of plates, until it swallowed it. Once the plates were inside the drum, it began throwing off some really thick steam, and I could only guess that it would be doing something with the plates inside, as every now and then it could be heard a slight clatter coming from the column of water. Soon the show was over, as the column of water became again a blob, now pretty dirty, and the plates were now flying into a counter, shinny white and not even steaming. I was awed, and only taking the spectacle, as the water was now washing the glasses and cutlery, still in mid air. These last dishes went on their way, as now the water just flew and settled in the sink.  
  
And Belldandy, in the center of everything, nonchalantly smiled at me.  
  
I hadn't noticed it, but my jaw was open. I quickly shut it up and tried to look nonplussed, but failed by miles. Still, no one else, not even Keiichi, had any other reaction than either smiling proudly at Belldandy, like Keiichi and Skuld, or amusedly at me, like Urd and Terai. I was feeling a bit embarrased on my reaction, and since nobody seemed likely to start speaking, I did.  
  
"Er. . . Well, who am I going to meet now, anyway?"  
  
"The Chief System Administrator, Urd's former boss." - Belldandy promptly answered me. - "He is a very bussy god, but today he allocated you the entire morning since the moment we arrive."  
  
"The entire morning?" - I asked, embarrased.  
  
"Nah, don't worry." - Urd answered. - "That place is normally as bussy as a stock exchange, so I bet he will love to take an unscheduled break." - Then she walked up to me and patted my shoulder, said "Good luck," and left the kitchen.  
  
"Now Nacho-san, we should better go now." - Belldandy said, while gesturing toward the door. I took the hint, and followed her out of the kitchen, around the hall, up the stairs, and into a modest bedroom. She extended her hand for me to take, and as I did so, she moved toward the full body mirror, and began walking into it, pulling me behind.  
  
'Now it would be really funny if my Secondary Energy Source happens to be food', I thought. I could already imagine myself looking like a sumo wrestler.  
  
Evidently, Irony wanted some fun at my stake . . . 


	9. Ch1, Scene 8

Alright, so I am not a regular writer, even if I try. Due to many things in real life, I can hardly churn out a few lines a month. Do not despair, that this story will eventually be finished, even if takes me a couple of decades.

Here I offer to whom might read, the next scene of the first chapter. If I don't change ( . . . once again . . . ) the struture of the story, this chapter should end on the tenth scene. I hope to put that one up before Xmas, but I make no promises.

By the way, I'm happy to say that I've finally gotten in contact with the one who calls himself "Darkwind" and authored the "Oh-my-god" saga. I know permission is mostly unnecesary for writting a fanfic, but still it does great stuff to your morale.

Hope you approve, Breet-san.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

On the other side of the mirror, Belldandy and I arrived to a dimly lit office. I could one more time feel we were in Heaven, for a slight hunger of Energy in the back of my head.

"Greetings, Belldandy." - I turned around, to see a gentle-looking middle-aged god gently taking Belldandy's hand. - And you must be the newly Ascended God. Greetings, newcomer." - And he took my hand with both of his and heartily shook it.

"Well, thanks sir. " - I answered embarrassed. After all, for all I knew he could be one of those legendary figures I had dreamed about in my childhood. 

"Oh, don't be shy, kid. My name's Hephaestus, Greek God of Craft, so what's yours?"

I stood there, frozen like a statue. Of all the Gods I could have wished to meet, I step on the Greek God of Crafts and Fire. Indeed, he was a hero for me . . .

"I . . . I . . . Ignacio, sir. " - I stopped and wanted the ground to eat me. I wasn't sure what would be his reaction toward . . .

"Neo-Circa God of Darkness?" - He completed. My face fell, and I could not bare the shame of starting with the wrong foot with such a God. 

A hand fell on my shoulder, and after a second I looked up to the face of the god. He wasn't angry.

"Don't worry, kid; I can understand how you feel. Remember that the Greeks were a civilization that venerated physical perfection, and look at me: I'm bow-legged!" - He stopped a second, to let me look down to his deformed legs. - "Yet being imperfect made me a hard worker, and look at me: today I'm Chief System Administrator of Terra's Heaven, and even to date I am still the God of Metallurgy. Come on kid, it isn't the end, but a new beginning for you." - And he pulled me into a hug.

I was taken aback by just how open was this god being with me. I shyly returned his hug, until the god finally let go, with a big smile. 

"Alright, want some tea? Or wait, you are originally Mexican, right? Then what about a spiced chocolate?"

"Of . . . Of course, sir." - I answered shyly. He chuckled once, and turned to Belldandy, who had been watching us.

"Warm apple cider, Belldandy-chan?"

"Yes, please."

"Alright, give me a second."

He turned and began working on a table on the corner of the room, which was covered in papers and assorted metallic teapots and cups. He raised a glowing finger and touched three of the teapots, which glowed metallic red for a second before settling and beginning to steam. He served our two cups before serving his, and took them to us. I was a little afraid of just how hot they might be, but after seeing how guilelessly had Belldandy taken hers, I decided to take mine from his outstretched hand, and to my relief, it was only warm. I smelled it and caught the delicious scent of lightly toasted, freshly minced cacao, mixed with cinnamon, vanilla and molasses, and slowly brewed on wood. My mouth was watering by the moment my lips touched the warm surface of the brew, and then I took a sip. The taste was indeed superior; however, there was just something in the back of my head which told me not to pass the sip, and no matter how hard I tried, my body just refused to shallow. In the end, I finally managed to shallow a bit, and my body answered by coughing strongly. The god only shook his head sadly.

"Sorry about that, kid; my fault." - He began patting my shoulder. - "It seems you also share my uncle Hades´weakness toward System Energy. Well, then the only thing I can offer you is inside that cupboard over there . . ." - He pointed to a cupboard on top of a file cabinet . . . - ". . . And sorry that I cannot give it to you myself, but because I'm a God of Fire, I'm constantly irradiating Energy, and might pollute it. "

"Well, thanks sir. "nd don't worry, I don't mind serving myself."

And so I went to and opened said cupboard, and immediately felt the Dark Energy being irradiated by the inside of it. After a second I shook my head and actually saw that the interior of the cupboard was layered all-around with a thin granite slab, and that the only things sitting inside the cupboard were a decanter and a couple of glasses, all made out of the finest carved obsidian I had ever seen. I picked up one of the glasses and not only admired it for its beauty, but also felt the attractive coolness it seemed to radiate . . .

"Quite an impressive set, isn't it? "

"Sure it is, sir; but they have an . . . I don´t know how to say it . . ."

"An Aura of coolness?" - Intervened Belldandy, from behind me.

"Well yeah, they do seem to irradiate a certain chill, which I can only find to be attractive somehow. Do you want to hold it?" - I offered it to her, but she stepped back and shrugged.

"Sorry, Nacho-san, but I definitely don´t want to touch it. Such high yield Selenite obsidian, especially so energized, just irradiates too much Dark Energy!"

I raised an eyebrow, confused. Yet I did understand that she was afraid of touching it, so I held it close to my body. "s I thought, she looked relieved.

"I guess this is some really Dark item, isn't it?"

"Yes it is, Nacho-san." - Belldandy stopped and looked uncomfortable. 

"It is quite a Dark item, kid." - Hephaistos answered. I noted that he was now keeping his distance from me. - "Hades might not be too much of a Dark God, but when he comes and stays for a while, he definitely needs a recharge every now and then. Plutonic and volcanic rocks, especially if they come from a dead celestial body, are good at storing Dark Energy, and certain kinds are much better than others. That bit you are holding is about as powerful as they get."

I raised my other eyebrow, now in full admiration. So I was being attracted by this because it was really attractive . . .

"Wow!" - I said. 

"Wow indeed, kid. Now please try and serve your drink, because keeping that cupboard open is really cooling down the place."

"Oh, sorry." - A bit embarrassed, I served from the decanter a liquid looking like wine, and closed the cupboard after returning it. I was expecting wine, but was gladly surprised by the strong flavor of fresh prune juice. I was also gladly surprised by a certain aftertaste, a certain something that just shook my heart with pleasure.

"Wow sir, is delicious!"

"Thanks, but you should better ask Hades where he gets it from. Too bad he gets it here already loaded with Dark Energy, although he might do so just to keep me off from his drink. Ha!"

"Besides, Nacho-san, it might be the Dark Energy in the drink what makes it so good to your taste; after all, Heaven is very poor in Dark Energy, and you might be hungry for it." - Belldandy concluded.

"Mm." - Was the only expression coming from me. It just made sense . . . 

"Well, bottoms up, kid! We might take quite a while to get your files, and I suspect we better begin sooner than later."

I smiled at him and downed the rest of my drink, concentrating in the incredibly pleasant feeling. Then shook my head to bring myself back to place.

"Well, sir, I think I'm ready. Where can I wash the glass?"

He chuckled.

"Ha! Don't worry about it, as the cupboard itself cleans everything inside it, and even keeps the juice fresh. Just return the glass, and lets go."

"Alright sir."

And so I returned the glass to the cupboard. As I was closing the door, a thought came to my mind.

"And sorry, Belldandy-san, but I think you mentioned Selenite'. Does that mean that those glasses where from obsidian from the Moon?"

"Yes, Nacho-san. As the Moon is geologically dead, not to say far from any considerable Light Energy Source, its rock is specially rich in Dark Energy. Besides, certain kinds of rock are better than others, and obsidian is some of the highest yield rock.

"Secondly, regular gods can use Dark Energy, even if its unhealthy for us; and as Dark Energy is much less volatile than Light Energy, we can use energized rocks as auxiliary, or tertiary, energy source, for times System Energy goes offline. For most normal uses, such as powering individual gods, we use selenite basalt or granite; however, for the highest level uses such as powering the re-booting protocols, we use the highest yield rock."

I was impressed.

"Su . . . such as that obsidian?"

"Yes, Nacho-san."

Right there I learned a bit more about the meaning of the phrase "pregnant pause", as I was a bit too awed to make a comment. That until Hephaistos coughed.

"Sorry kid, but we don't have Eternity just for the moment. Let's go."

He walked up to an inconspicuous door in a far corner, followed by Belldandy and me, and pushed it open. For a second I only saw light through the portal, until my eyes adapted again and saw a bit of . . . a cubicle-based office floor?!

"After you, Miss Belldandy."

"Thanks, Hephaistos-sama."

And so the two of them exited, and I did after them.

* * * * * *

Well, it was clear I was a known factor. The second I stepped out of Hephaistos office, the few people on sight ( . . . or deities, whatever . . . ) stopped talking, quite a few people in warriors' garb made themselves known, and my skin felt the blast of the suddenly increased illumination level.

Not that it was enough Light to banish all Darkness from the place. A bit under the desks, behind file cabinets, inside drawers and the pockets of certain warriors . . . Let's say enough for me to harvest; and as I could fell that it was too weak for me to again loose control, I decided this would be as good a moment to practice controlling my powers as any other. I began gathering the Energy, and remembering the way I had done to re-power Belldandy, I casually blackened my hands and concentrated into just keeping the Energy there; I wasn't expecting them to begin emitting wisps of black smoke, but I was very far from concerned, as now most of the warriors seemed more respectful, and quite a few bystanders vanished from view. 

"Hey kid, this way."

Hephaistos, with Belldandy lightly holding his arm, was a few steps to the right. He turned around and began walking, opening a way between two specially grim looking warriors, who respectively looked like a highly decorated modern army officer and a living suit of armor, both of them covered in dried blood. I tried not to look intimidated when I made my way between them, but I could not stop myself from sticking a bit closer to Hephaistos and Belldandy. We walked in silence through this maze-like office floor, until Hephaistos broke the silence, turning his head around with a forced smile.

"Please kid, that Dark aura was great at creating respect from those sword-happy lads, but you might want to consider that is also marking you like a beacon. It's freaking out Belldandy and me, too!"

Belldandy looked at me over her shoulder, looking pale, and nodded lightly.

"Oh, sorry."

I blushed, let them get a few steps ahead from me, and freed the rest of the Energy into a refreshingly cool cloud. 

We didn't walk but a minute or so before the two gods ahead of me stopped before a steel door, where Hephaistos keyed a password on an inconspicous keypad. The door (apparently hydraulic) slowly slid back.

"Welcome to the Central Control Room, Ignacio."

And so I followed them inside a dark, large room, literally lined floor to ceiling and wall to wall with display panels and controls. He walked up to an undistinguished section of wall, were he tapped a button, and three chairs appeared nearby.

"Do seat down, as this might take some time."

He pulled one of them up, sat facing the wall, and began working on a huge keyboard that appeared from thin air. After what I felt like hours of trying to keep-up with some incredibly fast computing from both Hephaistos and Belldandy, mostly in some weird written language mixing from the Greek alphabet up to Japanese kanji; Hephaistos called my attention.

"Well, Ignacio, I'm quite impressed at how vexing happens to be your file, but at least I have already managed to decode most of your profile and basics. Here's a condensed printout." - And coming from a slit just in front of me, a VERY thick folder appeared. - "Read it over dinner, where Belldandy and company will help you understand it. I still got to get a bit of sweat on the rest, although I actually suspect that The Almighty screwed it into a Mistery in purpose."

He sighed.

"Anyway, I'll make a copy for the little Skuld to do her own try; nothing is wrong with trying, specially as she might just be destined to be the one to decode it."

A CD-ROM sized drawer opened itself in front of the god, and Belldandy extracted from it a crystalline, lightly shimmering green octagonal tablet.

"This is a data tablet, Nacho-san. Is like a computer's removable disk, but is about a thousand years more advanced than anything known by modern humans." - Belldandy said, while she held the tablet and a proud smile.

Hephaistos suddenly slapped his forehead and cursed under his breath.

"Damn, kid, I'm forgetting one of the most important pieces of hardware I am supposed to give to any new god. Come this way!"

He jumped from his chair, closely followed by me, and opened a drawer on the far corner of the room. From it he pulled a woolen sack, which he gave me.

"This is your personal uniform, Ignacio. All gods have one, unique to every god or goddess, and is mostly obligatory to wear when dealing with official functions."

I received the news with a groan. The word 'uniform' means to me no-fun, after all.

"mm . . . alright, sir."

The gods seemed to notice my enthusiasm, or lack thereof. Belldandy suppressed a giggle, while Hephaistos didn't. After a second, he composed himself.

"No . . . Don't worry, kid! Every uniform is supposed to be something the owner will like, and it even slowly changes itself to fit his or her changing likes. And although they aren't properly part of the uniform, the sack is supposed to also contain most of your basic accessories."

I shook the sack, doubtful; yet, I didn't say a thing, and a moment later I smiled. Being my likes so widely extended, just how would my uniform' be?

"Mm . . . Then a uniform might not be such a bad idea . . ."

I made a motion to open up the sack, but Hephaistos touched my hand, and shook his head.

"I know you might be impatient, but please do wait until you have reed your profile. There you'll find a complete description, and indications on how to use your basic accessories. Pay special attention to the section denominated limiters', as they will help you stay in control of yourself."

"uh . . . Alright, sir!" -And for emphases, I lightly touched my forehead with two fingers raised, in a mock military salute. He chuckled a bit, heartily patted my shoulder, and turned to Belldandy.

"Bell, I know you have already reed as much as I have, and although I know you for all you are, I still need to explicitly ask you to take care of this boy; he'll need a lot of help to develop himself, and I can hardly think of a better teacher than you for him."

"I'm grateful for your trust, Hephaistos-sama; and I'll do my best."

"I would never expect less from you, Bell. Do take care, and please greet from me your sisters, your guest star, and that incredibly lucky mortal."

"Well . . . Bye."

Belldandy blushed, and raised her hand to meet Hephaistos', whom had just extended his. He picked up her hand and lightly kissed its back, even if she just seemed to blush even deeper. Then he moved up to me, and with a wide grin, patted my shoulder, hard.

"Well, be welcome to the Pantheon, kid, and take care of yourself."*

__

[ Author Note: The word "Pantheon", in Latin, literally means "All the Gods". ]

"I'll do, sir. And thanks for everything."

And so, Hephaistos gave me a last affectionate pat on my shoulder, and walked back to the door, which opened at a light touch from him. A second later the three of us were back outside, in the office floor, facing a giant mirror right across from the exit of the room. At both sides of the mirror there were piles of vicious-looking weapons. The entire tableaux inspired the message We want him out NOW', which seemed to be understood by the other two gods with the same speed as me, as now Hephaistos was lightly shoving us toward the mirror, and Belldandy was offering me her hand. I took it without a word, and followed her as she stepped into the mirror.

The transition wasn't instantaneous, as the last one. A pleasant sensation of warmth overcame me, and as I enjoyed it, I remembered about the sack I was carrying, and began divagating about how would my uniform finally be.

Would it be patched-leather pants complimented with a leather bandana, some heavy boots, and a billowing black cloak? Or would it be a modern military field uniform, made out of magic-enhanced fabric? Or would it be a full-body leotard with chameleon-like properties? Or would it consist in a tailcoat or a tuxedo? Or would it give me extra appendages, or extra senses?

. . .


	10. Chapter 10, Scene 9

Alright, he goes an update. I know it isn't so much of an update, but is way better than just keeping my stories forgotten.

* * *

I woke up in the floor of a bathroom; I was, apparently, back at the temple, and with a painful bump fast growing on the right side of my head. I opened my eyes slowly, to see Belldandy looking down at me with obvious relief, from her position kneeling by my side, and with one of her hands on my forehead.

"Hello, there." - I tried, while I began rubbing said bump. I also noticed that it took me a great deal of effort just to lift my arm.

"Oh, Nacho-san, I'm so sorry! I should have noticed that was a Mirror of Light! If I had noticed you wouldn't have been depleted."

Right then, steps were heard approaching, at a relaxed pace. Belldandy looked up and shouted.

"Urd, Skuld, please bring me all your Moon rock bracelets, quickly!"

And so the steps stopped for a second, and were replaced by a single set of steps running past the bathroom's door. I tried to sit up, but Belldandy gently restrained me.

"Please do not, Nacho-san. I've just re-energized you, but unlike when you did it for me, with my limiters on I could only muster enough power to bring you back to consciousness."

And right then the door slid open and Urd literally flew over me and gave Belldandy a half-dozen of assorted grey stone bracelets. - "Here Bell, I couldn't find anymore in such short notice..." - After that she just kept herself hovering close to the roof, watching on. - "But just what happened?"

"A Mirror of Light happened." - Belldandy said, while she bared my chest and began depositing on it the stone bracelets. - "Sister, his Secondary is food, so please go to the kitchen and start reheating the leftovers from breakfast."

"Right on, sis!" - And she took off like a rocket, narrowly missing Skuld; who had just appeared on the doorway, carrying at least two dozen more bracelets. After taking a second to recover from her narrow miss, she extended the bracelets to her sister.

"Here, one-sama. I hope they are enough, because I don't think I have anymore, besides depleted ones."

"Thanks, one-chan. Now please go and load the big rice cooker; not the regular one, but the one use for parties. Once you have set the rice, please come back here."

"Alright one-sama" – Skuld answered just before she left.

Belldandy turned back to me and was about to arrange this other bracelets on my chest, but I softly stopped her from doing so.

"No, Miss Belldandy. Let's better save them for once I have completely depleted these ones."

Truth be told, since the moment the first bracelet came in contact with my skin, I began feeling stronger, but also I began feeling nauseated, and the longer I felt them on my skin, I felt stronger, but also felt my stomach churning. By now I was feeling strong enough to stand, but also ready to vomit. With a swift movement I picked up the bracelets on my chest, and with little effort picked myself from the floor, kneeled facing a western-style toilet, and began vomiting. Then, to my great surprise, my vomit was nothing but a single, long torrent of liquid Light, which sat on the toilet just a few seconds before dissolving into thin air.

I raised my head, and clutching the bracelets on my left hand as for dear life, tried to look up at Belldandy with a smile.

"Well, just as they say about Mexico, I guess that was another reason not to eat Heaven's food." - And grinned to make point for my joke.

She smiled sweetly, while she helped me to get up.

"I would guess that now that you have expelled the Light, you are feeling much better, aren't you?"

"Yeah, loads better in fact!" - ... - "So my Secondary does happen to be food?"

"Yes. And I would hope my sisters already have some ready, so let's go to the dinning room."

"Alright; Ladies first"

And I bowed before her, while gesturing toward the exit.

"Thank you, Nacho-san." - And she moved out, with me behind her. As soon as we left the bathroom I could notice we were on the house's second floor, as I could distinguish it from when I had come up here on the night to deliver my dinner to Skuld.

Speaking of whom, she intercepted us in our way down the stairs.

"Alright, one-sama, the rice is set. What else can I do to help?"

"Thanks, one-chan. I will now need you to look at the sack with Nacho-san's uniform, and get us his limiters. Without them, his energy expenditure is draining him as fast as he is being loaded."

"Sure, one-sama, I'll get them."

Skuld gave us the thumbs' up and finished going up the stairs, but Bell called her just before she turned out of sight.

"Skuld, if you need his uniform's description, it's in Page Five of the manual I left in the bathroom!"

Skuld turned and looked curiously at her sister before giving her an "Alright, One-Sama", and turning out of sight. We continued our way.

By the way, Belldandy was not kidding about the fact that my 'energy expenditure' was draining me, and real fast. The Moon stone bracelets, soon ago comfortingly cold, were now beginning to feel warm, and I was beginning to feel both weak and hungry. So weak in fact that by the time we were in the dinning room, I was beginning to cling to the walls for support. I fell to the table without more ceremony, and was having a hard-enough time just keeping awake, until Belldandy removed the now-depleted six bracelets from my left hand, and put a fresh one on each of my hands.

"Hang on, Nacho-san. Here are the rest..." - And she deposited them in the table, in front of me. - "...But please try not using them all together, as we might not have many more, and you might need them for a while."

"Hello Belldandy-san." - Keiichi had just entered the main door, and his voice was coming from the entrance and getting closer... - "Sorry for not coming sooner, but Terai and me were at the shop and… Whoa! What happened?"

"Keiichi-san, Nacho-san has been completely depleted! Please watch over him while I go to the kitchen, and check the bracelets in his hands every once in a while. If they warm up, give him fresh ones."

"Uh... Alright, Bell-san, I'll do."

"Thanks, Keiichi-san." - And with that, she hurried to the kitchen, leaving me with a horrified-looking Keiichi. As the fresh bracelets were already energizing me, I picked up my head from the table, and tried to calm him down.

"Don't worry, Mr. Keiichi, I'm unlikely to bite you, especially in this state."

Nice pick-up phrase, buster: now he really looked ready to flee in panic!

"Ha ... ha ... ha! Do... Don't worry; I have already helped other gods in distress. Not that many of them really needed my help..." And he dissolved into panicky chuckles. After a second he sat opposite to me, and began touching the bracelets.

As I really didn't want him looking so terrified, I tried again to pick up a conversation.

"And well, where is Terai?"

"Well... she's at the shop, battling to wash microscopic particles of grease out of her hands. I proposed her as a joke to try incinerating them, but she was scared of the possibility of getting too far and once again erasing Tokyo out of the map."

He one more time dissolved into nervous giggling, and if I had been feeling strong enough I might have manifested my shock. Instead, I just let my head fall hard on the table, and wished to die.

Almost immediately I felt him pull the two bracelets off my hands and put new ones under it. I lifted my head again to complain.

"Hey man, those two weren't even warming up yet!"

He seemed startled.

"But then, why did your head fall on the table!"

"Because I'm feeling miserable, you know! I don't think I have been a god for a full day, and I have already gone through a homicide attempt, which I am not sure if I have survived yet!"

"Homicide!" Keiichi nearly shouted, as his eyes bulged. "What happened?"

"Well, I had my interview with this great guy Hephaestus and then we went to this Mainframe Room and got my uniform, but when we left that room we found ourselves cornered to travel immediately through this one mirror that as far as I have understood happens to suck darkness. Next thing I know, I'm in the bathroom's floor without energy to move a muscle. And don't forget that here's early afternoon, so I won't have a bit of a natural Energy source for a while to come: If this wasn't a set-up, I'll bite my forehead!"

I felt a click on the back of my head, while heard Keiichi mumbling. After a while a sacred silence fell between us, as we could only hear the occasional noise or exchange of words coming from the kitchen, and the occasional sweet-mouthed curse coming from upstairs. Finally, after what I felt like an eternity, the far door slid open, and from the kitchen stepped Urd, carrying a small platter loaded with what looked like the burnt remains of the morning's omelette. She practically shoved the platter under my nose, gave me a quick thumbs-up, and ran back into the kitchen.

I was a bit reluctant for a moment, first because I was still minding my modals (and so I was half-expectant for Urd to come back with a plate and cutlery); and second, because I wasn't too sure about how much heresy would it be to Belldandy-the-chef to stuff my face with one of her creations, ruined. The first reason was easily brought down, as Keiichi said emphatically "Bottom up, Nacho-san". Therefore, I discarded the second one as being stupid.

Using the serving spoon, I began shovelling down the offering. Its taste was a few notches below what I had tasted before, being half-frozen and half-burnt; yet it tasted like life to me, as I could feel that now I was obviously drawing more energy from the food than from the bracelets, which I could now put down on the table.

Too bad I had eaten three quarters of the platter by the time I really noticed. From that moment I tried to force myself to eat more slowly, even if I began feeling hungry just because of the slow-down. I knew the goddesses were cooking up a storm, but by the time I finished the platter, I was feeling more and more tempted to pick up the bracelets once again. Thankfully, Belldandy came from the kitchen carrying a tray loaded with assorted foodstuff. I quickly dug in, this time giving no second thought to speed or manners. I quickly lost track of everything and made my world to be only the plate at hand, and every few minutes the table while I put down the current and picked up the next one. It wasn't until I finished cleaning a large bucket of rice that I felt the most curious click inside my chest: suddenly I could open my eyes to my surroundings and could pause stuffing my mouth.

Terai was sitting next to me, watching me with an utmost look of curiosity. I felt embarrassed from not having noticed her until now, and further embarrassed for her gaze. Where my manners so incredibly bad?

"Sorry for that spectacle, Terai." I said, as I looked away from her, feeling even more ashamed as I felt an overpowering need to begin picking stray grains of rice from the bucket.

"I know you situation, Nacho-san, so there's nothing to be sorry for", She replied uneventfully. "What really amazes me is that you've eaten slightly more than a tenth of your body mass, and even so you haven't increased your total body mass in the slightest since I sat down to watch you a half hour ago. The only change I can see is an energetic build-up in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth dimensions, but I understand that converting matter to those kinds of energy is really wasteful. Are you cloaking your emissions on the dimensions four to nine?"

All right, I could understand every word she said, as I do take reading science and enjoying science fiction seriously; however, my understanding of the real meanings was obscured by bafflement. Is there truth in the notion of many overlaying dimensions in space-time? Am I converting matter to energy, and at a hundred percent efficiency at that? Am I cloaking something on myself without even knowing?

_Author's Note: 'Stealth' and 'Cloak' are similar concepts, but that need to be distinguished. A stealthy vehicle is surreptitious, being a hole in the background; while a cloaked vehicle would actively appear to be the background (think of it like active camouflage). Cloaking an emission would be making it blend with the background of radiations. _

"I… I really don't know!" I could eventually stammer.

The door to the kitchen opened again; Urd entered carrying a large platter. She planted it in front of me and picked up the bucket, and was almost all the way back to the kitchen before she made a double-take and looked at me not digging in.

"So you are already beginning to react? Good, now don't stop and I'll tell Bell we are almost there"!

My stomach rumbled, so I blushed and turned to the platter.

Said platter seemingly had half a dozen chickens. No elegance: haphazardly chopped and tossed into boiling oil, the mass of unevenly cooked meat with pieces of bone jutting out reminded me of the cyberpunk meaning of 'Chinese take-out'.

("Darn it, that riot gun made his chest into Chinese take-out!)

It hurt me to see some spices on it: apparently Bell had been so appalled on its appearance that she had at least tried to make it look more appealing, and actually managed to make it look like some dirt had mixed with the mangled and bloody flesh.

But what really hurt me was when I automatically picked up the serving spoon I had in my hand and began shovelling down the offering, almost without the benefit of chewing it. I did a quick job of the plate (or so it seemed to me), and once again I felt that weird click inside my chest, but now much stronger, and my body felt cooler. I didn't really give importance to it and pushed it away from my mind, just as I pushed away the now empty platter.

"Gross…" I muttered while I looked down onto the serving spoon on my lap, which sported several bite marks.

"I know!" Said Belldandy from across the table. I looked up to her, where she sat by Keiichi teary-eyed. "I know that food was really awful!" She added with a broken voice.

"What…?" I managed, before I caught what she had just said and could actually answer. "Oh no, Belldandy, I meant I felt awful to just shovel down the food like that!"

At least she didn't look now like she was ready to cry anymore, so I continued.

"On our previous meal I really enjoyed everything, but for all this time I don't think I have even had a sense of taste after the second half of the omelette. I wouldn't even remember what I have eaten so far."

She didn't seem happy just yet, but she seemed to settle down.

"I guess I should have expected that" she said after a few moments. "Until you had been properly reenergized, food would be nothing but fuel for your body. Now it seems you are already priming up, but until Skuld gets your Limiters or night has fallen, you will burn up your reserves whenever you stop eating for too long."

"So… this isn't over?" I asked; feeling very chagrined at the obvious sight of byte marks on the spatula on my hand.

She sighed.

"Not yet." She answered, adding a sense of finality.

We made idle chat for a few more minutes, until my guts groaned and Belldandy went again into the kitchen to bring me another platter of food. I ate again loosing control of my body, and for a few more minutes we could chat again, until my guts would groan again and the cycle be repeated.

The cycle repeated seven more times, and little variance occurred until…

Thud … thud … thud … Thud … THUD … THUD … WHAM!

The door nearly jumped out of its rails as Skuld opened it with extreme violence. She was by herself enough of a sight, even without the entrance: her skin was steel grey, her lips, eyes and markings were coal black, and she was letting go black smoke that would be absorbed by every surrounding shadow.

We all laid motionless for a few seconds, until I felt her emanations and, from across the table, jumped on her.

Urd would later on tease me to no end about what I did there, but at the moment all I thought about was the Darkness inside of her. I hugged her where she stood and my lips connected with the first terminal they found, which fortunately was the marking on her forehead. I suckled for all I was worth and drank the flood of chill that emerged there. I was there for a long time until the flood died, and licking my lips I released her and I stepped back a couple of steps.

She was a bit unstable, had a dreamy smile, and had her eyes glazed over. Her appearance was normal again, if a bit flustered. She stepped forward but her legs gave way, and I could barely move fast enough to catch her. With her again in my arms, I sighed.

"Well, you definitely seem to be a good kisser, Dark-boy."

I carefully turned around with an intense blush in my face (not that it would have been visible: I had 'blacked out' again) and gave Skuld to Belldandy, as I tried not facing a chuckling Urd. I returned to my spot at the table and sat down, just as everyone sat down again.

It took a minute for Belldandy to make Skuld react. Then, sipping tea, she told us what had gone on.

"Well, the sack in the bathroom happens to be an entrance into Nacho's pocket dimension. Happens that the entire place is littered knee-deep with depleted Moon Rock!" Skuld shuddered at the mere memory. "It took me forever, but I could get two of his limiters. Here they are." – She brought a hand inside her coat and pulled out two pieces of black leather, which were rolled up as if they were parchment. She laid them down on the table. - "But One-Sama, what does 'Class A' mean?"

If Urd had been drinking something, she would have coughed it half way across town, judging by the bewildered expression she made. Belldandy just put her cup down, and spoke up; while Urd clung to the table, and Keiichi and Terai seemed nothing but expectant.

"Skuld, that's the equivalent of First Class for Elementals and other deities based on environmental Energy. Basically means that a Class A being has a limitless capacity to absorb and store his own type of environmental Energy, and might have the same limitless ability to use his reserves. Yet it is a special class, and I don't think that a single being other than Nacho-san had achieved it after the Great Spirits, Titans, and Giants." - She paused, as a huge bottle of Sake flew from the kitchen and into Urd's hands.

Belldandy finished her idea after watching Urd pop the bottle and begin suckling on the sake like a baby. - "So, Skuld dear, would you remember any Class-A's that we know?"

"Err..." Skuld began, shaken away from staring at Urd. "Wouldn't it be like the Rainbow Serpent, one-Sama? So that's how he shaped the Australian Alps, isn't it?"

"That's correct, dear."

Skuld and Belldandy beamed at each other for a second. Then the implications struck Skuld, and me.

"So... how do I put this 'Limiters' on?" I said, while I grabbed the nearest one like it was made out of porcelain. "I don't want to one day loose control and blow somebody up!"

With great care and the calming assistance of Belldandy I unrolled the Limiter and put it on my left calf. It happened to be a gaiter (calf bracer) made from 2mm thick leather, black and shiny. I tied it up, and felt very surprised when it seemed to turn into smoke for a second before reforming without seams, and as close fitting as socks.

I felt unnerved, a feeling that lightened only a bit once I tested my muscles and saw the gaiter move with them.

Now a bit weary, I inspected the other Limiter: it turned out to be a bracer for my right forearm, made from the same type of leather as the other one. I wasn't surprised when it also lost its seams in a blur, or when my movement was unhindered by the piece: I was, though, when a feeling like liquid ice began spreading from these two Limited limbs, riding up until it connected on my chest. I felt how it tried to spread to the other two limbs, yet was met with leaks and quickly the flow stopped growing.

In all, the cold sensation was very pleasurable and made me feel stronger. I guessed that was how my power felt like.

"Whoa!" – I breathed out. I looked up toward the expectant faces around me (except for Urd, whose eyes where unfocused), and I made a comment.

"Does it feel this good every time you are Limited?" – I said.

"I wouldn't know", muttered Skuld, pouting.

Belldandy beamed at her sister and answered me. – "I don't think I would do, Nacho-san. My Limiters…"—She touched her earrings emphatically. –" …Aren't design to limit my output, but my input. I must admit that having them off is pleasant, but I know my responsibilities. Speaking of which…" – She stood up in a graceful motion. –"…I believe we better go to the bathroom and retrieve the rest of your uniform. Are you feeling well enough to follow?"

I looked down on my body, looking for the answer. I tested the muscles or my arms, tensed the muscles on my legs, and carefully pushed myself up. I tested my legs a bit more before looking up.

"I believe I am ready." – I said. – "To the bathroom?"

"Yes. Follow me, please." – She said, even as she waited for me to reach her. She began moving once I was at her side, and turned to the door that faced the kitchen. We went over there, but just before we passed before the kitchen, my stomach decided to growl again.

"Should we make a detour through the kitchen, Nacho-san?" – Belldandy said in a completely innocent fashion.

I was mortified, but nodded. Some chuckles went off from the room behind us.

* * *

That was it for the moment. I hope you enjoyed it. Unless I decide to put a filler scene after this, it should close Chapter 1.

Even if I did not answer the questions planted on the previous chapter, I am not forgetful. The story calls for answers, which I will deliver at the sedated pace required by my outline. After all, would the Harry Potter books be so popular if they gave all answers at once?

Take care and have my genuflections, those who have waited on me.


End file.
